More is more

When it comes to exhibitions and events in the fashion and fibre line, we are in a time of largesse, not minimalism, so it is necessary to interrupt the countdown to May in Dunedin with the latest run of things to see/do, up and down country. For Dunedin, the big new opening in February was the installation of Hautāmiro on the Big Wall of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. This latest work by the internationally renowned Mataaho Collective was undertaken as the DPAG Aotearoa Visiting Artist Programme, supported by Creative New Zealand. It includes the Mataaho signature features of scale, mythos, traditional and modern techniques, but as with all their previous work, different interpretation and angles for the specific site. The Big Wall is flat, and bathed in the natural light of the DPAG atrium, which changes with skies and seasons. Stretched out on the wall like a 20m kakahu, Hautāmiro invokes the wind, with the gallery’s natural light providing illusions of movement. This imposing and elegant work consists of variations of four elements, four colours; its key materials, muka and wool, represent indigenous and introduced traditions. The Big Wall’s works stay up for many months, so it will be there during the symposium. There’s an excellent feature in the Otago Daily Times, unfortunately paywalled, in which the collective talk about the process and the inspirations of this work.

A plug for the ODT here, as they have regular and substantive arts coverage, and the day they featured Hautāmiro, their Art seen column (not paywalled) reviewed a suite of textile and adjacent exhibitions coordinated by Caitlin Rose Donnelly at Oamaru’s Forrester Gallery, running to 6 April. Of particular note, the group shows Poipoia te Kākano and Iti Biti Matapihi include textile works by Donnelly, Megan Brady (Kāi Tahi, Ngāi Tūāhuriri, Pākehā) and Aroha Novak (Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāiterangi), Georgina May Young (Te Ūpokorehe, Whakatōhea, Pākehā) and Piupiu Maya Turei (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Ātihaunui-ā-Pāpārangi). Donnelly also has a solo installation, Kei te Haere Ahau, which ‘almost fills the entire [side] gallery space with red and black fabric’. Blankets and bedding feature prominently across the three shows, grounding the concepts in the everyday and the whakapapa of home.

The biggest noise of the last month has been around the Eden Hore book, in store now (but selling quite well, according to Newsroom’s bestseller list). Jane Malthus and Claire Regnault, Eden Hore Central Otago trustees and past and present CTANZ presidents (respectively) and the team have produced a stunning book which warrants (and will get) a separate post but it’s been hard to miss the interviews and features – even international – about this golden glory. The book was officially launched on 1 April at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, along with the Eden in Dunedin exhibition and a very busy iD Dunedin Fashion Week, which has been keeping Ōtepoti frockies occupied. Again a shout out to the ODT, one of iD’s supporters, who’ve been publishing a steady stream of editorial and advertorial, not all paywalled, in the fashion section.

A reminder that this is the last month of Vivienne Westwood’s jewellery at Te Papa; also in the greater Wellington area, !Nature in Amami Ōshima! at Toi MAHARA—Kāpiti Coast District Gallery, an exhibition of heirloom kimono, contemporary garments using the ancient mud-dyeing technique of dorozome and paper wall hangings, the work of visiting international artist Yukihito Kanai.

Further north, it’s changeover time at From out of the blue studio gallery. Journeys – our way, the Kapiti Extension Group Exhibition has given way to Art + Science and the Textile Curious, an exhibition curated by Pam McKinlay of textile works from the Dunedin Art + Science exhibition’s that she’s coordinated for several years, with art inspired by conversation and collaboration with local scientists.

Waikato audiences have the opportunity to check out work by Macarena Bernal, Alison Leauanae and Rowan Panther via Crafting hybrids at the university’s Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts (main gallery). On until 6 June, this is a small selection of Bernal’s jewellery, new textile works by Leauanae and a large piece by Panther (plus the Aoteroa debut of a film about its making), with the unifying themes the many elements the artists bring to the making of their work. Leauanae has another exhibition of her hand-stitched and woven works on paper, Sa’ili – Seek 2, opening at Bergman Gallery in Auckland on 5 April.

Auckland is definitely on a roll. In association with Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival 2025, Te Uru Contemporary Gallery presents Soft Spot, exploring ‘the objects and rituals that make up a home via the practices of three artists: Claudia Kogachi, Ming Ranginui, and Erica van Zon’. Kogachi’s rug making, Ranginui’s fabric sculptures and van Zon’s work honour and consider the domestic (to 20 April). Te Uru is also a new stop for Maungarongo Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou); the exhibition of Kokonga Ngākau will include workshops. Objectspace’s autumn season, opening 4 April, includes PUPURITIA: Storytelling and Contemporary Textiles. Curated by Melanie Tangaere Baldwin, PUPURITIA PUPURITIA features new and recent works by 18 artists including Steven Junil Park 박준일, Georgina May Young, Tehani Maungarongo Te Kawa, Jasmine Tuiā, and Arielle Walker. The exhibition ‘an acknowledgement of the complexity of stories that make up community in Aotearoa – as told through textile practice’, runs to 1 June. Steven Junil Park 박준일 and Georgina May Young will be among the presenters at the CTANZ symposium.

Masterworks continues to keep the new work coming at pace. The latest exhibitions feature Frances Stachl’s I ruia mai and Tui Emma Gillies’s Echoes of the Island Seas, jewellery and tapa cloth respectively, opening 5 April. If you can’t get there, the e-catalogues are available on the gallery’s website, as for the previous exhibitions. In How does it happen, Australian artist Zoe Brand offers a new series of SOFT TEXTS, draped remnants sporting ‘singular statements’. Before that was new work by Kathryn Tsui, Opened many doors following Tsui’s last beaded depictions of artist’s houses, this time including the Blackman house in Dunedin. In her accompanying essay, Jane Groufsky highlights Tsui’s nod to a fellow weaver by replacing the upstairs window with a detail from Margery Blackman’s tapestry, Townscape.

Finally (for now) because all roads, even Karangahape, currently lead back to Central Otago, Aucklanders have the option of a short-run exhibition of the collection’s photographs by Derek Henderson at the Melanie Rodger Gallery, 10-17 April. Derek Henderson Central Otago Couture: The Eden Hore Collection will open with the Auckland launch of the book.