To be as the Seer / Kei tua o Te Arai

Ko *To be as Seer/Kei Tua o Te Arai*, 2019 kei te hāngai pū ki te kīanga ‘Kei tua o te arai’. Ko te tikanga o tēnei kīanga he titiro ki tua o te ārai o nāianei, arā he kupu whakarite hei mihi ki a rātou mā kua whetūrangitia heoi anō kei konei tonu ā rātou tuku ihotanga. Ko te tāera a Kelcy Taratoa he tikanga tūrehurehu, āhuahanga hoki, me ngā tae ngāwari ki te hanga i tētahi wāhi e noho ai ngā kaupapa o te ao Māori ki tētahi ‘wāhi kiwikiwi’, ‘Te Kore-tē-wiwia’. Kei roto i tēnei wāhi kitea ai te reo ataata o Taratoa e whakamahi ana i ngā āhua Māori o mua, ā, ka whakauru atu i ngā tīwhiri ahurea o te marea. Ko tā tēnei hanganga he rīrapa te āhua he whakahuahua i ngā tukutuku o te pakitara o te wharenui, me te āhua o tētahi taumata Pac-Man; kua meatia ētahi ‘kēhua’ muramura e toru hei miramira i taua āhuatanga.

*To be as Seer/Kei Tua o Te Arai*, 2019 alludes to the expression ‘Kei tua o te arai’. In its broadest sense this phrase means to see beyond the veil of the present or the obvious and acts as a metaphor to acknowledge those who have passed and whose legacy remains. Kelcy Taratoa employs an abstracted geometric style and muted colour palette to create a space where concepts of te ao Māori (the Māori worldview) can exist in what the artist describes as a ‘grey space’ or ‘Te Kore-te wiwia’ (the space without limits). Within this space, Taratoa’s visual language draws on Māori customary forms and subtly deploys popular culture referents. This is seen in the maze-like structure which simultaneously mimics the tukutuku panels that line the walls of wharenui (meeting houses) and a Pac-Man stage, aided by the disparate placement of three bright coloured ‘ghosts’.

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