Archive News
Exploring the exchange of cultures through dress - 03 Dec 2009
Three intricately detailed garments, based on 19th century dresses and influenced by Mäori cloaks, form the basis of Jo Torr’s Nga Kakahu (The Cloaks) exhibition, which opens at Tauranga Art Gallery on Saturday 12 December,
Nga Kakahu draws elements from two traditions of design, combining aspects of European dress from the 1880s, with elements of Mäori cloaks of the same period. Torr’s inspiration for the garments stems from an interest in Mäori inventiveness in appropriating and adapting the materials introduced by Europeans, upon their arrival in New Zealand.
Torr has long been fascinated by the exchange of cultures between Polynesian and European peoples. She explores how each culture benefits from this exchange in her previous works, The Gauguin Suite and Tupaia’s Paintbox, also through the use of elaborately constructed garments.
In Nga Kakahu, Torr focuses on the relationship between Mäori cloaks and European blankets, using as a reference images taken by Alfred Burton in 1885, showing photographs of Mäori wearing an array of costumes ranging from woollen blankets, fine cloaks, and fashionable European dress. Upon closer inspection, the dresses have been adorned with items such as a muka necklace, a tiki, or huia feather.
Torr has used white blankets to construct the garments in Nga Kakahu. These blankets have mostly been salvaged from opportunity shops, and each bears an imprint of their own history.
Blankets are associated with warmth and comfort, and they are also loaded with symbolism. During the 19th century, blankets were items of trade and currency, and often used by Colonists as a trade for land. Torr has also named each of the garments in Nga Kakahu after three cloaks that are held in high regard by Mäori – the elegant and austere kaitaka, the korowai which was adorned with black cord that moved along with the wearer, and the ngore, which was decorated with pompoms and running loops.
Nga Kakahu can be viewed at the Gallery from 12 December 2009 until 21 February 2010.
© 2009