Mataaho Collective have won a Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale 2024, for their large-scale installation Takapau. Curator of Contemporary Art Hanahiva Rose reflects on this remarkable achievement.
Mataaho Collective
In April 2024, Mataaho Collective made history as the first New Zealand artists to be awarded a prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale. They were recognised for their large-scale installation Takapau, which is on display in the main exhibition of the Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. Mataaho were selected for inclusion in the exhibition by curator Adriano Pedrosa, alongside fellow Māori artists Brett Graham, Fred Graham, Sandy Adsett, and Selwyn Wilson.
Mataaho is a collective of four wāhine Māori: Erena Arapere-Baker (Te Atiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangātira), Sarah Hudson (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Pūkeko), Bridget Reweti (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) and Terri Te Tau (Rangitāne ki Wairarapa). They have worked together for over a decade, creating monumental installations that recall histories of atua wāhine. Using industrial materials to practice weaving techniques on a massive scale, Mataaho’s work demonstrates the expansive potential and ever-changing nature of Māori textile arts.
Describing the process of working collectively, Mataaho have said:
We relish in our ‘four-brain, eight-hand’ approach, which enables a sense of supportive freedom as we continually attempt to develop works that are bigger than what we can achieve in our individual capacities. Our strength as a group is our collective authorship. Our aim is to construct projects in such a way that it isn’t possible to tell who has contributed which part – and often we can’t tell either . . . Throughout Indigenous art histories, especially women’s practices, this is not a new concept.[1]
The ambitious scale that Mataaho work at is made possible by this “four-brain, eight-hand” approach, as well as their keen attention to the spatial environment in which they are working and an impressive ability to realise intricate weaving patterns many times larger than they are usually made.
Takapau
Takapau was commissioned by Te Papa in 2022, as part of the collective’s exhibition Mataaho Collective: Te Puni Aroaro, curated by Curator of Contemporary Art Dr Nina Tonga (Nina is now Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa). “I felt it was important for Te Papa to recognise Mataaho Collective’s leadership as artists that claim and hold space in art institutions for mātauranga Māori and the narratives of wahine Māori,” says Nina.
At the time of their 10-year survey exhibition Mataaho Collective: Te Puni Aroaro and commission of Takapau at Te Papa, Mataaho Collective had already received national honours including the coveted Walters Prize with their tuākana Dr Maureen Lander. Internationally, they remain at the cutting edge of contemporary art regularly commissioned to create site-specific installations at prestigious exhibitions and biennales. Takapau felt timely and was a celebration of the way they continue to shape contemporary art globally.
The installation is made of reflective high-vis tie-downs, woven into an intricate suspended takapau, or woven mat. The environment the artwork creates recalls the sacred space of the womb, a threshold between te ao marama and te ao atua – the world of light and life, and the world of the gods.
Head of Art Charlotte Davy reflects that commissioning for Te Papa’s large Threshold Gallery is a challenging opportunity for artists – and one that Mataaho were ready for. “Artists need to take risks for good artworks to come into being at that scale. I want to commend Mataaho for taking that opportunity and running with it, which has paid off with incredible results.”
Takapau was selected for the Golden Lion by judges Julia Bryan-Wilson, Alia Swastika, Chika Okeke-Agulu, Elena Crippa, and María Inés Rodríguez, who said:
Mataaho Collective has created a luminous woven structure of straps that poetically crisscross the gallery space. Referring to matrilinear traditions of textiles with its womb-like cradle, the installation is both a cosmology and a shelter. Its impressive scale is a feat of engineering that was only made possible by the collective strength and creativity of the group.
“No one deserved this more,” says project manager Catherine Halbleib, who has worked with Mataaho on multiple projects, including the 2019 Honolulu Biennial To Make Wrong / Right / Now, curated by Nina Tonga. Catherine describes Takapau as a physically demanding artwork to create but observed that Mataaho were in complete unity when installing it: “They didn’t need to talk to one another, they all knew exactly what they were doing.” She sees this unity mirrored in the cohesion of the completed installation.
Many hands
Many people across Te Papa supported the initial display of Takapau in Toi Art, as well as the process of getting the installation prepared for travel to Venice. Preparators Phillip Brown, Tom Rowell, Yashar Sholehpak, Morgan Parker, Glynis Gardner, and Alivia Kofoed de-installed the artwork over 4 days, carefully removing each tie down by reversing the weave of the work. While taking the work down, Tom was struck by the sheer weight of the industrial materials – a sharp contrast with the sense of lightness Takapau conveys.
Kaitiaki taonga Cameron Woolford worked with Mataaho to establish a labelling and numbering method for the 960 parts that make up Takapau, so that the collective would be able to remount the work in Venice as simply as possible. Charlie Blakiston carefully built crates for all the components, ensuring that they would travel safely and be easily unpacked.
Spatial designer Vioula Said worked closely with Mataaho to adapt the artwork to the new venue – the Corderie of the Arsenale di Venezia, a converted rope factory. The space “came with a series of very strict parameters and constraints,” says Vioula, “such as no fixing to the floors, walls or columns”. Despite this, Mataaho and Vioula were clear that no drastic changes should be made to the work.
Although the Corderie is similar in scale to Te Papa’s Threshold Gallery, where Takapau was first shown, the slightly shorter length of the space meant that the work had to be angled at a steeper pitch. The columns dotted throughout the space presented a greater challenge, as “the work would have to stop and start around them.” Vioula describes the design solution as a “mini structural support system around each column: a steel square mount that sits at the same pitch as the rest of the work and allows for a break in the woven tie downs.”
Lighting technician Michael Slater provided a lighting design plan for the Venice installation to follow. How Takapau is lit is key to the work, as the different webbing on each side of the tie downs mean they respond to light differently – certain lights cast rainbows on the work, while photographs taken with flash will turn the weave hi-vis. It is this lively relationship with light, and capacity for transformation, that gives the installation its dynamic presence.
As Nina reflects:
Working alongside Mataaho Collective to realise Takapau from wānanga to installation was a privilege and career highlight for many in our project team. In the development of the work we gained rare insight into their collective approach to art making through site visits, their engagement with the collection and many zoom calls. Working with artists who are committed to collectivity was a formative experience that enhanced our collective efforts as exhibition makers.
“Mana wāhine, namely the empowerment and integrity of Māori women, is the mātauranga Māori that forms the basis of our work, including processes of research, development, and wānanga,” say Mataaho. “We employ it as a philosophy through which to view our histories.”[2] Watching the ceremony where Mataaho were presented with the Golden Lion, I was reminded of footage of the 1985 Booker Prize, where Keri Hulme won for her novel the bone people – the prize accepted on her behalf by Irihapeti Ramsden, Marian Evans, and Miriama Evans of the Spiral Collective, who walked up to receive it with a karanga. It is rare that we see mana wāhine Māori presented, acknowledged, and celebrated on the world stage; these are moments that we must honour and remember, for recognition that is at once remarkable and long overdue. Congratulations Mataaho – we are all with you.
[1] Tim Corballis and Mataaho Collective, “Mata Aho: Mana Wāhine in Contemporary Art,” Counterfutures 5 (2018): 73.
[2] Corballis and Mataaho Collective, “Mata Aho,” 75.
