Leilani Kake and Te Tuhi blog

Due to my commitments as a father I unfortunately Missed the first 3 weeks of the semester so I shall now Endevour to catch up !

Leilani Kake is a Moving Image artist and is currently employed as a lecturer at the MSVA at MIT she is of Maori descent on her fathers side (Nga Puhi) and Cook Island descent on her Mothers side.
I veiwed her exhibition called Nga Hau e Wha at the fresh gallery in Otara at the beginning of this year the exhibit consisted of 4 Naked polynesian women floating on water and projected on to 4 walls symbolising the 4 stages of a womens life the young women ,the pregnant women, the middle aged women and the older women the context of the work was to create dialogue about the high rate of breast and cervical cancer among Maori and Pacific island women and also to celbrate the beauty of the female spirit.
Another one of her works I veiwed was called Tino Rangatiratanga another moving image peice that documented the last 3 stages of her fathers life. The first stage showed her father receiving a facial moko and the ceremonial karakia or prayer the second stage showed her father in hospital after suffering a stroke not long after receiving his Moko the third stage showed his Tangi her fathers name was Richard Kake. After watching this peice I realised that Leilani has an overwhelming passion for moving image art although I must admit It felt a bit intrusive to watch something so personal and so close to ones heart.

Leilani is currently working on amusic video for her sister who is a female rapper from south Auckland the video is called ghetto sheek and should be released later this year.


Te Tuhio - Rapid change exhibition

Mega Mall Infomation Centre ,2011
by Elisapeta Heta
(digitalvideo,vinyl signage ,timber ,MDF,cardboard)

This exhibit was punctuated by contrasts for example the outer wall of this peice was constructed out of brown corrougated cardboard while the inside was a pristine white acrylic on MDF which talks about the fact that mega malls like Westfeild st lukes give little thought to their exterior and surroundings and concentrate more on creating an inviting interior which encourages patrons to spend more money.
One of the visuals used showed a picture illutrating the height of the mall in relation to the houses sorounding it it was made to scale and portrayed how the mall dwarfs over local properties effectively blocking the sun and reducing the properties value which works in favor of the faceless foriegn owners who purchase these properties at a lesser price in order to expand their Mega malls more like Mega cons (condominiums that is ! )

Ice House Detroit ,2011
Mathue Radune

This peice is in two parts moving image and a still photo.
It talks about the American recession of 2008 and how it crippled detroit when 20% of the locals defaulted on their loans and the residential properties were forclosed effectively creating ghost towns of close to empty streets.
the artist successfully pervays the credit freeze by producing an icicle clad family home by dousing it with a fire hose for 24 hours for 30 days straight the result is an ominous and haunting site strategically lit at dusk.
This is my favorite work to dateas it effortlessly and effectively creates dialogue about the detrimental and callously cold effects of capitlist greed gone wild.