In the digital age we make constant decisions about how to portray ourselves through images. Whether it is a profile picture for Facebook or Linked-in, a passport photo or a family portrait, we make numerous decisions according to what we want to communicate to others about our appearance and personality. Kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) brings together a selection of works from the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Collection that reveal different ways artists have chosen to represent themselves and others.

Paul Hutchinson’s careful and realistic depiction of himself references traditional methods of portrait painting, while Merylyn Tweedie utilises collage and language to describe a person with more complexity than a traditional single-perspective portrait might. Edith Amituanai uses the medium of photography to illustrate the role that community and family play in shaping a person’s identity, as does Lisa Reihana in her personification of the mythical sea-creature Marakihau that brings legend to life. Meanwhile, Michael Smither’s Rubber Gloves is a portrait by proxy, depicting an everyday object with as much detail as an image of a face or the palm of a hand, one now absented from the object itself.

Katie Smith, Visual Arts teacher, New Plymouth Girls’ High School

The Open Collection series extends the Govett-Brewster’s Ministry of Education funded Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom (LEOTC) programming. Taranaki art and art history educators are invited to reach into the Govett-Brewster Collection to develop an exhibition that enables teaching and learning for secondary school students within a gallery context. Students can have close encounters with artworks important for the understanding of New Zealand contemporary art.

He rite tonu tā tātou whakataurite i a tātou anō mā ngā whakaahua i te ao matihiko nei. Me he whakaahua matua i Pukamata, i Tūhono, i to uruwhenua, i te whānau rānei, inā ngā mea hei whakatau mā tātou kia hāngai ki te karere ka tukuna ki hērā atu tāngata e pā ana ki tō hanga me tō kano anō hoki. Kua kōtuia ngā kohikohinga mahi mai i Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Collection ki tēnei whakaaturanga o Kanohi ki te Kanohi hei whakatairanga i ngā aronga i kōwhiria e ngā kaiwhakairo hei whakaahua i a rātou anō. Ka kitea ngā tikanga peita whakaahua tuku iho i te āta hanga me te tūturutanga o te whakaahua a Paul Hutchinson i a ia anō, keiwhā te whakapau a Merylyn Tweedie i tētehi kāpuinga whakaahua me te reo hei whakaahua i te kātū tangata pīroiroi ki tērā kātū whakaahua inamata me tōna aronga kūiti. Ko tā Edith Amituanai he whakamahi i te kauwaka kapo whakaahua hei whakaatu i te haepapa o te hapori me te whānau ki te whakairo i te tuakiri o te tangata, waihoki tā Lisa Reihana i tāna whakatinana i te tupua moana, a Marakihau, me tāna whakaora i te pūrākau. Ko tā Michael Smither he kōwhiringa whakaahua, arā, ko Rubber Gloves. He whakatūahonga tēnei o tētehi mea māori tonu, me hōna taipitopito katoa hei āhua kanohi, hei āhua o te kapu o te ringa rānei. Waiwai ana ngā kamo i te tirohanga atu.

Katie Smith, Kaiako Toi, Te Kura Tamawāhine o Ngāmotu

Hokahokai ana te raupapatanga mahi a Open Collection ki ngā hōtaka LEOTC a Govett-Brewster, nā Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga te pūtea taunaki. E karangahia ana te toro mai ā ngā toi o Taranaki me hōna mātanga hītori toi ki te Govett-Brewster Collection ki te whakawhanake i tētehi whakaaturanga hei whakaako i ngā tauira o ngā kura tuarua ki rō whare whakairi toi. E wātea ana te piri ā ngā tauira ki ngā mahi toi e hāngai pū ana ki ngā māramatanga ki te toi o muri nei, i Aotearoa.

Nā Te Ingo Ngaia i whakamāori i ngā kōrero / Text translated by Te Ingo Ngaia.

Open Collection #2: Kanohi ki te kanohi exhibition view at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Photo Sam Hartnett

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