Art After Dark Toi o te P? The Inspiration of Tapa

Art After Dark Toi o te P? The Inspiration of Tapa
Thursday, October 15, 2009
5:30–8:30 p.m.
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa (Free Admission)
Wellington, New Zealand

This month’s evening of art, discussion, music, and wine focuses on the new exhibition Tapa: Pacific Style. For more information about this exbit, please visit www.tepapa.govt.nz.

5.30pm–6.15pm
Exhibition floortalk: Join Safua Akeli, Curator Pacific Cultures, for a floortalk in the Tapa: Pacific style exhibition. Eyelights Gallery, Level 4

6.30pm–7.15pm         
The Inspiration of Tapa: Peter Brunt, Senior Lecturer Pacific Art at Victoria University, talks about tapa cloth in the Pacific, and the way some contemporary Pacific artists have responded to it in their work. The Marae, Level 4

Peter Brunt teaches Pacific Art, Postcolonial Art and Theory, and Primitivism and Art History Methodology in the Art History programme of Victoria University of Wellington. He has research interests in Pacific art, art and cross-cultural encounter in the Pacific, and postcolonial art and theory. For more information about Mr. Brunt, please visit www.victoria.ac.nz.
 
7.15pm–7.30pm         
Beaten (Not Woven): Poet Teresia Teaiwa reads poetry composed especially for Tapa: Pacific style along with poems from her spoken-word CD I can see Fiji. The Marae, Level 4
 
Teresia Teaiwa is of Banaban, Kiribati, and African American heritage. Her people are not tapa-making people, but she spent a full 21 years of her life living in Fiji, where it was ubiquitous. For more information about Ms. Teaiwa, please visit www.victoria.ac.nz.
 
7.30pm–8.30pm
Relax with a wine or perhaps a hot chocolate while enjoying Pacific music from Miramar Express. Miramar Express is a string band made up of five musicians from the Cook Islands, who play the ukarere (ukulele), guitar, and drums. Their mellifluous harmonies and toe-tapping rhythms will remind you that New Zealand is part of the Pacific. Level 4, Espresso