Hotere’s Hauhake (Harvest)

Image: Detail of illustration by Ralph Hotere, Sap-wood & Milk (1972).

A visit to the Angela Morton Room Te Pataka Toi Art Library inspired contemporary Māori artist Jade Townsend’s upcoming Hotere’s Hauhake (Harvest) residency at Objectspace. This opens on 1 December in an architecturally designed campervan on Objectspace’s forecourt. All are welcome to visit the space which will function as both a studio for Jade, and a gallery space for objects made by a range of artists responding to the kaupapa, too. The residency was sparked by the Art Library’s collection of books illustrated by Hotere, and by Hone Tuwhare’s poem “Hotere” - poet and artist were friends, and Hotere’s work features in several of Tuwhare’s collections.

Image: by Ralph Hotere, from Sap-Wood & Milk (1972), poems by Hone Tuwhare.

Image: by Ralph Hotere, from Mihi (1987), poems by Hone Tuwhare.

Hotere also illustrated collections by writers including James K. Baxter, Bill Manhire and O.E. Middleton. He used a variety of techniques from wash drawings to line drawings, to gouache and crayon on paper.

Image: by Ralph Hotere, from The Loners (1972), poems by O.E. Middleton.

Other inspirations for Jade’s residency include Kettles Yard in Cambridge and her Nana’s whare, places where the treasures feel intimate and also without hierarchy – each object is as significant as each other. “A sparkly sponge hangs next to a whānau portrait in my Nana’s whare,” said Jade, “and Kettles Yard is both a home and a gallery, and a solace for those who wish to slow down and find subtle connections between art, text and textiles,” said Jade. “I want Hotere’s Hauhake to be a sensory delight an intimate space full with joyful moments.”

Jade Townsend.

“As the objects find their place in this domestic setting, there will be decisions about how they lie, stack, rest, lean and relate to each other,” Jade said. “This negotiating and renegotiating of space and proximity will change throughout the week – visitors are invited to propose alternative compositions to reveal new readings, new ways of being. I will be there to facilitate and korero to this. I will be on site to provide the manaatikanga, to welcome and host.”

Hana Pera Aoake.

Dan Whitaker.

The week-long Hauhake residency falls on an important week in the art calendar when the largest contemporary exhibition of Māori art in history - Toi Tū Toi Ora - opens at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. For updates please follow Instagram: @hauhake_

Image: Detail of illustration by Ralph Hotere, piggy-back moon.

Hotere

by Hone Tuwhare  

 

When you offer only three

vertical lines precisely drawn

and set into a dark pool of lacquer

it is a visual kind of starvation: 

 

and even though my eyeballs

roll up and over to peer inside

myself, when I reach the beginning

of your eternity I say instead: hell

let’s have another feed of mussels  

 

Like, I have to think about it, man  

 

When you stack horizontal lines

into vertical columns which appear

to advance, recede, shimmer and wave

like exploding packs of cards

I merely grunt and say: well, if it

is not a famine, it’s a feast  

 

I have to roll another smoke, man  

 

But when you score a superb orange

circle on a purple thought-base

I shake my head and say: hell, what

is this thing called aroha  

 

Like, I’m euchred, man. I’m eclipsed?

Image: Portrait – Bill Manhire by Ralph Hotere, 1971, from The Elaboration.

Artists included in the Hauhake are:

Jade Townsend, (Ngāti Kahungunu) Pākehā. British.

Hana Pera Aoake, (Ngaati Mahuta, Tainuoi/Waikato, Ngaati Hinerangi)

Daniel Whitaker, Pākehā

Elaine Townsend, (Ngāti Uenuku, Ngāti Rangi, Ngā Rauru Kurawhatia)

Maia Robin McDonald, (Te AAti Awa, Parihaka, Taranaki, NZ)

Neke Moa, (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Ahuriri, Kai Tahu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa)

Nikau Hindin, (Ngai Tūpoto, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi)

Makyla Curtis, Scots Pākehā 

Emile Drescher, Pākehā, American, Danish

Billy McQueen, (Ngāti Manawa/Te Arawa). Scottish, Irish.

Harry Were, Pākehā

Adam Ladley, Pākehā, Zimbabwaene

Hyaes-Anaru Ladley, (Ngāti Kahungunu), Pākehā. British.

Emiko Sheehan, (Ngāti-Maniapoto, Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Whaoa-Ngāti Tahu) 日本人 Kyoto, Pākehā

Jasmin Sparrow, Pākehā, South African

Whitney Nicholls Potts (Ngāti kurī)

Tyson Campbell (Te Rarawa,Ngāti-Maniapoto)

Sean Miles, (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Ahuru)

Jaime Jenkins, Pākehā

KM A Marks, Pākehā of Scottish, Jewish and Croatian descent

Tyrone Ohia (Ngāti Pūkenga, Ngāi te Rangi)

Nicole Hunt, (Ngāti Rongo, Ngāi Tūhoe) Filipino (Aklanon, of the island of Panay)

Leanne Radojkovich, Pākehā

Image: by Ralph Hotere, from PINE (2005), poems by Bill Manhire.

A selection of publications with illustrations by Ralph Hotere:

Hone Tuwhare collection:

Come Rain Hail (1970)

Sap-Wood & Milk (1972)

Something Nothing (1974)

Making a Fist of It (1978)

Mihi (1987)

piggy-back moon (2001)

Bill Manhire collections:

The Elaboration (1972)

Malady (1970 and 1997)

PINE (2005)

O.E. Middleton

The Loners (1972)

James K. Baxter

Jerusalem Sonnets (1970)

And see Gregory O’Brien’s book:

Hotere: out the black window. Ralph Hotere's work with New Zealand poets (1997).