Tracey Tawhiao Two Ways
It is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) which was a good reminder for me to include Maori artists in my programme of study in the art room. Nathan’s class joined me today and we had a great time praising each others art efforts in Te Reo.
Today was a process based day of learning where the students made two artworks based on the work of Tracey Tawhiao. Tracey Tawhiao is well-known for her beautiful, vibrant works on newspaper. She removes most of the text in the articles, keeping only a few phrases in an effort to subvert the narrative of the mainstream media and portray the daily news from a Māori perspective.
One of the main motifs in Tawhiao’s work is the koru. The students learnt about the cultural importance of the koru/pitau and then looked at some variations on the design such as mangopare, kape and ngutu kowhai. From here the students used crayons to practice koru patterns in the style of Tracey Tawhiao. I asked them to experiment with balance through the use of positive and negative space. The students were given a limited colour palette to work within, the same as Tawhiao does. Below are the students finished inquiries these techniques, the works are bold and vibrant much like Tawhiao’s own work.
