BAYE PEWHAIRANGI RIDDELL
NEW ZEALAND, NGĀTI POROU
TOA (I, II, III)
2019
Uku - Clay
Warriors – leadership, protection, courage, perseverance - fighting against poverty, inequality, prejudices, pollution, greed and oppression.
Commentary from Poutiaki Toi - Curator, Piri Cowie:
“Toa”, created by, Baye Pewhairangi Riddell of Ngāti Porou, holds the stance of a Kaiwero - Challenger and is symbolic of the warrior qualities of courage, honour, respect, protection of whanau - family, leadership, skill, determination and perseverance. His work echoes the ancient forms of Ngā Toi Māori - Māori Art, while laying down the wero, kua takato te mānuka - a challenge, to consider the stand we are making for Te Tai Ao - our Natural environment today.
To be in the presence of Baye Pewhairangi Riddell’s uku - clay sculptures is to experience the mauri - life force of the whenua. Many of his art works are derived from Papatūānuku, they appear to be literally pulled up from the earth, he often works with uku - clay from his family land on the East Coast of Aotearoa - New Zealand.
Baye Pewhairangi Riddell's sculptures created from uku, bring attention to indigenous perspectives relating to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically - “life on land” and the significance of the whenua to him, as he speaks about his art practice he
states, "Working with clays from my family land gives me a deep sense of connection to my tipuna - ancestors and to my whenua…
Nō te uku
Hoki atu ki te uku
Nā te uku ka whakanui te oranga
From the clay
Back to the clay
I celebrate life”
MANAIA (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII)
2020
Uku - Clay
“March of the Manaia” – prophetic warning, protest
Whakarongo mai
ki te tangi o te whenua
ki te tangi o te moana
ki te tangi o te hau takiwā
ki te ao tūroa
Whakarongo mai
Ki te tangi o nga tāngata pohara
Ki a rātou e mauiui ana
Ki te hunga kore mahi
Ki te hunga kore whare
Nāu te rourou nāku te rourou
Ka ora ai te iwi
Listen
to the weeping of the land
to the cry of the sea
to the wailing of the wind
to the natural world
Listen
to the cry of the impoverished
to the sick
to the jobless
to the homeless
with your basket and my basket
the people are sustained
KAITIAKI (I, II)
2020
Uku - Clay
Custodians… our responsibility to sustain this world for future generations.
MANAIA
2020
Uku - Clay
MAURI
2020
Uku - Clay
The life essence… tihei mauriora!
