“My primary goal for the exhibition was to participate, enjoy the experience and increase my profile. My secondary goal was to make sales and gain commissions.”
©2016 Parihaka
Materials: Pencil drawing on found map paper.
Artist’s statement: As an artist, I’m interested in depicting people’s stories. My portraits are of people, families or things I love. As a social worker I’m interested in people’s lives and why they do the things they do. I’d just completed a paper at Massey on endangered cultures, and when I read the story about Parihaka and what happened there, it really impacted me. Parihaka is a historic New Zealand story about a non violent, passive resistance* led by Te Whiti-o-Rongomai and fellow prophet Tohu Kākahi during the Taranaki land wars. On 5 November 1981, a large force of more than 1500 armed soldiers led by Native Affairs Minister John Bryce, marched on Parihaka and were greeted by children singing, as several thousand Māori sat quietly on the marae. The significant part of the story to me was the part when the soldiers came up to the children singing – so this was the moment I chose to depict – the child doing the Karanga call. The map behind her is from the 1970s, and is of Mt Taranaki, also known as Mt Egmont.
* This was years before Mahatma Gandhi, the well-known pioneer of nonviolent social change.
Exhibition tip: “Creating the exhibition was like creating a painting, in the sense that there are moments where it seems it won't resolve itself into something you can present, but if you step back, or keep working away at it, it all comes together beautifully.”
To find out more about The Learning Connexion’s Creativity and Art Certificate and Diploma programmes call us on 0800 278 769 or request a prospectus.
See more of Marie Lotz’s work at www.facebook.com/mariecarmelartstudio.
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