whiriwhiri-ā-rōpū
Tanya Ruka
By Kathryn Tsui
whiriwhiri-ā-rōpū is a selection of current and previous
moving image works by visual artist Tanya Ruka that weave together in a
continual visual conversation. Māori
weaving and carving patterns are the fundamental structures within Ruka’s
moving images that are visually composed through repetition, mirroring and
multiplication.
Ruka’s art practice makes visible unseen spiritual and ancestral connections to land and place. The artist says, “The source of my creative process is Wairua (spirit); the inherent interconnection between the whenua (land) and tupuna (ancestors).”
Ki runga ki raro (2012), the linear projection
work, translates as north and south or up and down is shot on ancestral land in
two locations, Waipounamu, South Island and Hokianga in Northland. Ruka who
initially trained as a painter, uses painting techniques to experiment with
this familial footage, building layers, concealing and revealing certain
elements of the screen that in turn play with the dimensions of the gallery. The
resonating sound track is 3 generations of the artist’s family singing the word
whenua (land) in different parts.
Ruka
describes her filmic subject as catching the performance of the landscape as it unfolds. The work presented on
the LCD screen, Takiwai (2011)
required the artist to sit in the landscape for days. In these extended single
framed shots, she collects the lyrical moments in the landscape, equating the
movement of windblown grasses as brush strokes on the land.
In
Ruka’s most recent work, kaitiakitanga:
ki runga ki raro (2012) she observes
the role of guardianship, filming the protestors in the Aotearoa is Not For Sale march against the government’s proposal to
sell public assets. Again images are arranged
with the visual principals of Māori
weaving and carving patterns as Ruka wanted to look at the situation from a Māori perspective.
As an
artist Ruka continually returns to Māori
concept of time, space and place where past, present, future coexist. She says,
“This installation is a coming together of my work - a visual conversation past
present and future, like the Māori
phrase i nga waa o mua from times in front. It refers to walking backwards into
the future with our ancestors our history in front of us.”
Artist Biography
Tanya
Ruka (Ngapuhi, Waitaha nui tonu) graduated from The University of Auckland with
a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2010. Since graduating Ruka’s video projections have
featured in national exhibitions and international film festivals including
the 5th Indigenous International Film Festival. In 2012 the artist
completed a Master of Art and Design at AUT and plans to study further and
apply for a doctorate.
