Gently, 2019 Billie Culy Photo / Supplied
Ruawharo T.-rangi is a collection of paintings, sculptures and objects from Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust.
These will be displayed alongside the work by Hawke’s Bay artists in Nature Culture.
While exhibitions on the environment are current and relevant at the moment, they are often addressed in light of the urgent climate change and environmental crisis.
Although talking about global warming can be an effective call to action, it can also create anxiety in our tamariki (the generation that will be responsible for the future impacts of climate changes).
The exhibition is motivated by these circumstances, but it doesn’t directly address them. Instead, it aims to encourage visitors to “connect” or reconnect with nature, some of which are lessons learned from the past.
This is not to minimize the urgent need for climate change, but to try to find a positive solution.
Art plays a central role in this group, with each artist sharing stories and ways of being in the natural world that are less cynical.
The exhibition includes works by Ralph Hotere and Colin McCahon as well as Browynne Cornish’s collection. They have all had distinguished careers and each one has a personal relationship with the natural world, whether it be philosophical or aesthetic.
The exhibition features seven artists who reside and work in Hawke’s Bay. g.bridle, Chris Bryant-Toi, Annette Bull, Nycki Crawford, Billie Culy, Peter Madden and Ben Pearce.
Peter Madden collages photos from National Geographic photobooks to create explosive miniature universes that transports you into the stratosphere where you can ponder your own existence.
Billie Culy filmed her video works in Lake Kuratau as well as Haumoana. Culy began video work in Haumoana in lockdown in 2020 after having returned from the United Kingdom in the wake of the pandemic. Culy continues to work on the series, exploring its restorative potential.
Chris Bryant Toi will be showing his model Tuamatua that he made for the Whakatu Arterial Linkway to the gallery. These sentinels will be on your route through Karamu Rd and the Linkway. Bryant Toi’s work is smaller, but it serves as a model for larger outdoor works.
Nycki Crawford, a painter and sculptor of energies, is a painter who uses sparks and bursts to examine how the earthly cycles affect and affect us.
Ben Pearce recently completed Te Papa’s 4 Plinth installation. He made incredible origami figures in a work called “Paper Pals Aotearoa”. Follow them on Instagram and visit them online.
His work in Nature Culture is a bit creepy and quite a contrast to the brightly coloured critters displayed in Wellington.
g.bridle, the artist, will also show work made in Ahuriri’s Williams Kettle Building. After establishing a reputation across the country, g.bridle is another artist returning home to Hawke’s Bay.
Annette Bull, a mysterious ceramicist, creates beautiful sculptures that draw from the ancient histories and geographies of clay.
Nature Culture is a celebration of nature and the stories of artists who have the potential to change our future.
Toni MacKinnon is the Art Curator at MTG Hawke’s Bay.