Style: July 01, 2022

70 Style | Art
This exhibition is about the process and celebrating the
resources that are available, so raw and processed samples
will be on display as well as paintings, a new endeavour
for Sarah.
“I’ve been making paint for a long time and I keep an
archive of all the paints I create. Sometimes it is fun to follow
the material through.”
It also references her whakapapa and the lineage of the
rock art of her ancestors, which has stayed around for
generations to see.
A theme of her work for many years, the archway, has also
reappeared in this like “a portal through time” as it becomes
more prominent in her practice.
“It kind of squishes time. It’s representative of a lot of things,
a cave, the rock art, all the different ways to communicate and
express ourselves.”
So she used her hands to paint a lot of different surfaces
and then added the details.
“It was real fun, it’s a really physical process where you get
to know your material, you meet it and touch it straight away.”
Some of the paint she used still had that gritty texture of
rock in it.
“I didn’t want to pretend it wasn’t rock. It’s not a finely
milled pigment industrially made. I like that it comes
from rock.”
When she first started making paint, the idea was to create
paint that would last generations, like her tīpuna.
“I quickly shifted to wanting a practice that I could return to
the land without harming it and have a relationship with these
materials. I want to have a light footprint with my practice.”
For Sarah the searches have opened her eyes to the
abundance available at her feet.
“These are the same colours available to my ancestors and
it’s free, you get fresh air and it’s fun.”
If any dirt is being turned Sarah will be there, whether it
is roadside cuttings, her friends putting in a new driveway
or large construction sites. She is often called in by iwi to do
cultural monitoring on new building sites.
“There are a lot of contemporary opportunities to look at
dirt, which our ancestors could not have fathomed.”
It has also created new opportunities. The collective has
been consulted by their iwi around colour palettes being used
in its rebranding.
“There is such a wide range of uses that we’re stumbling
into as we go along.”
Being part of a collective is a vital part of Sarah’s practice.
“I love to work collaboratively, you get to really focus on
community a lot.
“You have to take ego out of the equation when you are
working as a group. I love getting together, talking about ideas
and it all goes into the pot and merges as one.”
Sarah has been part of the award-winning Mata Aho
Collective since its inception 10 years ago.
Inspired by customary Māori textile practices and industrial
materials, Mata Aho creates large-scale installations and was
nominated for the Jane Lombard Prize for art and social
justice in New York in 2020 and was awarded the Walters
Prize here in Aotearoa in 2021.
“It has allowed me to be an artist for a job, which is really
rare. It’s why I love collectives — it’s four mates sharing life for
10 years, which is pretty choice.”
So opening her first solo exhibition in many years is quite
“freaky”, she says.
“There are not other people to shift attention on to. In
Māori culture, for Tūhoe in particular, humility is the utmost
personality trait you must display at all times, so to put
yourself forward as an individual feels unnatural to me.”
However, she still brought other artists in to work with
her on the exhibition. Local videographer Rachel Anson has
filmed video works for her and Wellington composer Te
Kahureremoa Taumata has created audio for it.
“I couldn’t help myself. I had to bring people in. It’s my practice
too. I love sharing. I run workshops and apply for funding and
divvy it out. I love community and contributing back.”
Sarah also organised the first national symposium for Māori
earth practitioners to run alongside the opening weekend
of the exhibition. Twenty Māori artists spent a weekend in
Dunedin sharing resources, knowledge and listening and
“eating lots of food”.
Sarah is appreciative of the Caselberg Trust enabling her to
bring her husband and six-year-old with her, making the residency
possible. Her goal is to carve out a family-friendly art life.
“Quite often art things are really suited to an individual, so
to have the opportunity to bring my whānau along for a good
chunk of time is quite unusual in the art world. It’s not super
family-friendly.”
LITTLE RIVER GALLERY
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Ashley
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