Shifting strands _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

Recording Mauri: Moments of Light and Earth is unapologetically political, deeply thought, and imbued with earth-toned beauty. The solo show by Cora-Allan, an award-winning visual artist of Māori (Ngāpuhi, Ngātitumutumu) and Niue (Alofi, Liku) descent, weaves together her whakapapa using traditional methods, contemporary perspectives, extensive research, and a dynamic range of artistic processes at National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa until the 23^rd of May.

“Cora-Allan works across such a broad range of mediums and has developed beautiful ways of integrating them together – performance with painting, hiapo with whenua, cyanotype photography with site-specific exploration – that it feels incredibly natural to bring these media together in a single space,” City Gallery Te Whare Toi curator Kirsty Baker says.

Comprising over 60 works that connect artmaking to traditional knowledge systems, Recording Mauri: Moments of Light and Earth “speaks directly to the current moment here in Aotearoa, the greater Pacific, and the world”, Baker continues.

“The exhibition explores mauri, the cosmological energy that connects all things in creation. For Cora-Allan, physical traces of mauri – such as those possessed by the whenua or moana – are intrinsically linked to environmental and socio-political shifts taking place in Aotearoa and the world today. The works, including scallop-shell books and a new large-scale painting that will be finished in the gallery, are both visually captivating and thought-provoking.”

This new, active painting opens an opportunity for the artist to offer insight into her process and share knowledge about the materials and histories that she engages with.

“It's easy to think of exhibitions as static or fixed things, but they are constantly shifting and changing with each visitor’s individual experience,” Baker says. “The completion of the large painting in the gallery space is a really powerful way of reminding us of the mutability and life that artworks hold – that they are not frozen in time but subject to constant change.”

As for the exhibition as a whole, Recording Mauri: Moments of Light and Earth marks a big shift in Cora-Allan’s practice.

“I really feel as though it has allowed me to find a space where my whakapapa sits. I think it is a really beautiful way of sharing the history of Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa and how we are living together with the Indigenous people of Aotearoa”, the artist says. “I am from Niue and Aotearoa, and usually my art leans towards one or the other, but these works really meet in the middle of these strands.”

Sitting close to He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, both of which are also housed in the National Library, the exhibition “speaks directly to the contemporary legacies of these documents”, Baker says. “I hope that all visitors – tangata whenua and tangata tiriti – take away a sense of the ways that they are connected to these legacies”.