The meaning of WhakaART

(WhakART for short -- pronounced ‘fuck-art’)

WHAKA: (particle) New Zealand Māori language. Meaning 'cause to happen' or 'make happen'.
Prefixed to adjectives, statives and verbs to change the context of the word to a more active function. Example: E 'whaka-rongo' ana te kaiako. / The teacher is 'listening'.

ART: (noun) English language. Refers to the production or arrangement of sounds, colours, forms, movements or other elements for aesthetic purposes, or in a manner that expresses concepts, elicits an emotional response or responds to the human condition.

WhakART, the exhibition, sprang from a conversation between myself and Ioane Ioane in early 2012. At the time we were working together to plan the opening ceremony for an exhibition of his. In his usual fashion, it was quite a lively ceremony that involved projections, sound equipment and a stage manager. Ioane explained to me that although his ceremony would be very contemporary, it was still a ceremony -- not performance art. Performances are things that are 'acted' out, where as ceremonies have rituals and serve a function. Much like a wedding, a couple can decide to arrange their ceremony in whatever manner they choose, however there are certain rituals that must be attended to before the ceremony can be completed. So off we went and planned the ceremony in a manner that attended to the cultural requirements of a blessing, albeit in a very contemporary style.

At some point somebody pointed out that ceremonies are essentially 'performed' and therefore can plausibly be described as 'performance'. Semantics aside, whether or not the blessing was termed a 'performance' or a 'ceremony', the broader issues raised by these discussions centred around the use of language and how we become locked into a Western discourse and way of thinking simply by using Western terms to describe and explain our cultural customs. The whole episode provided fuel for some really interesting conversations around the use of English language words to define and compartmentalise Polynesian cultural customs and artistic practices.

A more appropriate term for such a ceremony would of course be Whaka-noa, the Māori term for a tapu (sacredness) lifting ceremony -- 'Whaka', meaning ‘to make’, and 'noa', meaning 'common place' or 'free of tapu'. So, one of the lessons I learned from this exercise was that our job as Pacific artists (if you choose to adopt such a label that is) is made exceedingly difficult if we do not know the words to articulate ourselves clearly. Without our own words we run the risk of spending all our time arguing English semantics instead of getting straight to the indigenous words that address such ideas in a more direct and culturally appropriate manner.

As more and more artists of Polynesian heritage graduate from Western academic schools of art, our syntax and thinking around ideas of 'art' and 'creativity' is invariably drifting towards this Westernised model. We are the generation of artists who are learning more about German and French theorists than we do about our own cultures. To add to this conundrum, being that there is little in the way of Pacific art or craft education on offer at many of these institutions, and as many of us have already lost the ability to articulate ourselves in our mother tongue, it seems almost inevitable that our ability to think from a Pacific perspective should also eventually begin to dwindle -- especially for those of us who do not have a strong cultural base or support network at home or outside of academia.

The time has arrived where we now need to focus on spending as much time re-learning our own cultural customs and language as we do learning about Western art terminology, concepts and theories. It's a matter of balance, to be confident in both realms and languages to enable us to cut through the semantics and define and describe our own practices in and on our own terms.

The title of this exhibition, Whaka-ART (WhakART for short), acknowledges this duality by combining the New Zealand Māori prefix ‘Whaka’, meaning ‘to make’, and the English word ‘art’, to refer to the idea of ‘art making’. It also has the sleight function of saying "Fuck Art". Instead, let's talk about tatau, moko, takona, hopara-makaurangi, kowhaiwhai, raranga etc... Let's use our own words to describe our own creative practices.

One more thing before I publish this post...

The necessity for the word ‘art’ in the title of this exhibition also highlights the fact that there is no Polynesian word that equates to the English definition of ‘art’ (well, not as far as we are aware). Each mode of creative/artistic practice in the Pacific tends to have a genealogy of its own. For instance, in Aotearoa New Zealand carving is related to Tangaroa the god of the sea, weaving is related to Hineteiwaiwa the god of womanly arts, tattooing to Ruaumoko the god of earthquakes and volcanoes etc... Each pursuit has its own specific provenance and genealogy. There is no umbrella term that encompasses them all.

In contemporary times the word ‘toi’ has come into popular usage as a Māori "approximation" for ‘art’. However, when added to the prefix ‘Whaka’, it becomes Whaka-toi, which means 'to tease' or 'ridicule' ― not a label that one would necessarily want attached to their art practice.

With that said, one could plausibly propose the term Whaka-toi as an apt description for many types of contemporary art being created today... Just a thought... 

Smiley face =)
Reubs

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