Commissioned for the Gallery’s 10th Anniversary celebrations, Papamoa-based artist, Kereama Taepa has created one of his unique graphic mash-ups inside the Tauranga Art Gallery lift.

Using imagery from contemporary popular culture mixed with Māori kōwhaiwhai designs and symbols he has transformed this small space into an immersive gaming environment, in which each person who enters becomes an unwitting avatar.

Around you choppers fly in formation towards a deconstructing, cubic tiki as Super Mario clones bounce away to their own beat. Knuckle-duster daisies smile sweetly beneath a pixelated pare (carved door lintel) that hovers above the only exit.

This will not be your typical arcade experience.

Taepa studied for his Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts at Massey University in Palmerston North, and continued on to gain his Masters degree.

His involvement in the arts have been broad and varied, and he has participated in various national Maori arts symposiums, workshops and hui.