Ratanui

Ratanui

He rātā tawhito a Rātānui, ā, e ai ki ngā kōrero 1,000 tau te pakeke, e tū ana i Tarapuruhi, pātata ki Whanganui. Ka kitea te orokohanga mai o te rātā i runga i ngā peka rākau taumatua. Ka āta tupu iho hōna pakiaka ki te whenua, ka pīoioi, ka karapoti i tōna rākau taumatua i te huringa o ngā kaupeka maha.

Ko tā Peter Peryer he kōwhiri i te pūtake o te rākau hei kapohanga māna, kaua ko tōna karamatamata – he tirohanga e āhua ōrite ana ki te tangata e titiro ana ki te pūnaha i tōna kauru me hōna pakiaka. Ka tohu atu a Peryer i te “congruence” o te wāhanga o raro o te rākau me te āhua o te ringa citrus o Buddha, i kapohia e te ringatoi i te tau 2012. Ka pōkai, ka tākiri ngā hanganga e rua – ā, ko tā ngā mea e rua, i tō rāua whanaketanga, he mau ki te hanga o tētehi āhua kei tua i a rāua anō – pērā i te rauangi pūioio, i te whakakopa o ngā matimati rānei.

Ka kitea ngā mea i waituhia me ngā mea waituhi-kore, i ngā kapohanga whakaahua huhua a Peryer, arā he mea e noho wehe ana i te nuinga. Ki te āta wetewetehia, ka rāhiritia tātou e Peryer ki te māwhitiwhiti i ngā manawataki, i ngā waihanga me te matū o ngā mea ka kitea i ia rā. Hei tauira, he rākau ka whai hua, he hua ka whai rākau. Ka kaha aro ngā whakaahua a Peryer ki ngā mea rerekē e kitea ana i ngā horopaki o te ia rā, ā, mā te pērā tātou e maumahara ai ki te ara poutama me te mana o te toi kei roto i ngā kapohanga whakaahua me te ao e karapotia ana.


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Rātānui is an ancient northern rātā thought to be around 1,000 years old standing in Tarapuruhi, near Whanganui. The northern rātā species begins life perched in the higher branches of mature trees. Its roots slowly grow downwards to the earth, twisting and writhing over many years to eventually engulf its host.

Rather than seeking to capture its magisterial height, Peter Peryer here chooses to picture tree at its base—a view approximate to a human looking upon its serpentine trunk and root system. In writing about the work, Peryer points to a “congruence” between the form of the tree’s lower section and an image of a Buddha’s hand citrus, taken by the artist in 2012. Both forms coil and unfurl—and both, in their staging, bear a resemblance to something beyond themselves—like sinewy tissue or clasping fingers.

In many of Peryer’s photographs, animate and inanimate subjects are pictured fragmented, partial views isolated from the whole. In dissection, Peryer invites us to make uncanny leaps between the rhythms, patterns and textures of things found in daily life. Between, for instance, trees, fruit and viscera. Peryer’s images insist on the strangeness to be found in everyday scenes, and in doing so, remind us of the staging and artifice of photographic images and the social world they claim to faithfully capture.

— Simon Gennard, 2026