Liu Shueng, Jie Ying Cai harvesting bamboo.
During the Lunar New Year and ahead of Waitangi Day this year, Māori and Chinese artists debut 雙土海葬 DOUBLE BURIAL in Northland.
The multimedia group exhibition, curated by 蔡杰盈 JieYing Cai, explores the unique relationship between Māori and Chinese underpinned by Te Tiriti o Waitangi through the shared rituals around death, burial and afterlife, inspired by the stories of the SS Ventnor.
This collaboration between Māori and Chinese artists brings together mahi raranga by Reva Mendes, sculpture by Angerlia Oliver, audiovisuals by JieYing Cai, Nathan Blundell and Michael Sue, and waiata by Eda Tang. The free exhibition will run from 2-28 February at The Shutter Room Gallery.
Don’t miss its launch on Sunday 2 February at 1pm.
About the artists
JieYing Cai 蔡杰盈
JieYing is a first-generation Chinese New Zealander with ancestors from Ganzhou 贛州. She is a multimedia artist currently residing in the Hokianga exploring themes of memory, identity and grief through craft making and photography. Curating this exhibition has been a journey of learning of language, tradition and returning to her own roots. JieYing was an attendee of Pāruru 2024.
Reva Mendes
Reva Mendes (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri, Tainui), a passionate kairaranga (weaver) with whakapapa links to both sides of the Hokianga, has been involved in many kaupapa that connect her to other kairaranga and artists. A local Hokianga wahine, Mendes is the founder of Kōrari Enterprises, creating kōrari/harakeke paper with the aim of connecting and building the value chain within Indigenous plants and fibres and reigniting the fibre/textile industry within Te Tai Tokerau.
Eda Tang 唐子遥
Eda Tang is a second-generation Chinese New Zealander descending from Guangzhou, China. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, she is a writer, a journalist, and a passionate language-revitalist. A student and teacher of Te Reo Rangatira, she combines her love of music and language in her waiata, Hokinga Oneone, a waiata submerging listeners in the grief of the spouses and children of the men whose bones never returned home. Tang attended the Pāruru journey in 2024.
Angerlia Oliver (Ange)
Ange Oliver (Muriwhenua, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Raukawa ki te tonga), is also a mokopuna of Hana Toi, Ngāti Korokoro, Te Roroa. As a mature ākonga and emerging artist, Ange has just completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Māori Visual Arts through Toioho ki Āpiti. She was also the sole recipient of the Collin Post Memorial Scholarship in Sculpture in 2024. Recently her mahi toi has been an expression of mamae and aroha using natural materials and her own unique processes embedded with cosmological and customary knowledge. Her aim is to hold space for fragility and resilience that redresses cultural identity and belonging.
Exhibition Dates: February 2-28, 2025
Opening 1-3pm Sunday 2 February, 2025 (light refreshments available)