Tirohia
Ashleigh Taupaki
27/01/2021 - 13/02/2021

"Tirohia" means to survey. This work explores surveying as a tool of colonial subjugation that disregards the mana of natural resources and non human others. Surveying was often used by European settlers to determine boundaries, which divided Maori land; decide where to level ground for farmlands; and to identify excavation points for precious minerals within maunga. Surveying instigates a large variety of exploitative behaviour. In these processes, the hauora of non human others is overlooked, homogenised and destroyed in the colonial endeavour for control and occupation.

Ashleigh Taupaki (b. 1997, Waitakere, New Zealand. Lives and works in Tāmaki-makau-rau, Auckland, New Zealand) explores Māori connections to place through concepts of indigenous narrative and non-human agency. Working with hard materials, she creates sculptures that manifest ideas of kaitiakitanga (stewardship) and collaboration with natural resources. She depicts places that are significant to her own ancestral origins in Hauraki, New Zealand, and strives to revitalise the stories and knowledge of her people and lands.

Her recent exhibitions include Where You From, Te Uru (2020), the New Artists Show, Artspace Aotearoa (2020), Matā, RM Gallery (2020) and has written for Mayfair Art Fair, and a number of independent zines. She has recently been awarded a Ngā Manu Pīrere Award from Creative New Zealand for her achievements as an emerging Māori artist. She has recently completed an MFA at Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland.

Design By Haz Forrester