COVID-19 ALERT LEVEL 4: With the move to Alert Level 4 from 11.59pm on Tuesday 17 August, NZ Fashion Week have announced their event, including NZ Fashion Weekend will be postponed – as will related events including Fashion Weekend in the Heart of the City and Fashioning Our Future at Ellen Melville Centre. We will update as more information and details become available. Stay safe.
A live activation that will see these two artists, Arielle Walker and Sam Bailey bring people to a table to leave their mark to create a beautiful work of art that has been contributed to by many creative hands.
Titled "He Taupo Nui A Rangi" meaning "A Heavenly Garment", this activation hopes to function as a Mātauranga Māori, natural dying, muka and sustainability workshop within the Māori market day running throughout NZ Fashion Weekend.
The concept is to have two metres of Flax Linen spread across two trestle tables within the market for the entirety of the day. Head along and leave either an illustration, mark or design with natural dyes or a whakatauki/positive message and what they hope to see for the future of New Zealand fashion with fabric markers.
The goal for the activation is to cement people into place through memory. Making them feel as though they have experienced Fashion Week fully, and left their mark (quite literally) on it. The fashion industry is not always received as warm and inclusive, this activation hopes to be accessible for everyone as an opportunity to highlight the beauty of Te Ao Māori and create tangible knowledge exchange through making as a community.
Arielle Walker is a well known Māori & Irish artist who's textile work is inspired by the rongoa (naturopathy) provided in the fauna found in her two ancestral homelands. She is currently studying a Masters in Fine Arts and has a specific focus on Mātauranga Māori, the processes and practices given to us by our Tīpuna when working with textiles. Her work "Rongoaa" which has been shown in St Paul's St Gallery, Blue Oyster, Master Works Gallery & Whānau Mārama is just a small snippet of her knowledge & craft.
Sam Bailey (Ngāti Porou Ki Harataunga, Ngāti Huarere) is known for their social and political practice. Bailey’s process focuses on actualising whanaungatanga (collective consciousness) by marking art as a group. Drawing on a practice centred around people, Bailey’s work aims to cement notions of tika and pono in physical space; to broaden the ways in which their whānau can access and respond to the city.
Paints and brushes supplied by Resene.
This event is proudly supported by Auckland Council and the city centre targeted rate.