TIGHT FIVE – HANA PERA AOAKE
Hana Pera Aoake (Ngaati Hinerangi me Ngaati Raukawa, Ngaati Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Ngaati Waewae, Ngaati Wairangi, Waitaha, Kaati Mamoe) is an artist, writer, and researcher. Their practice that explores overlaps and tensions between Indigenous and European knowledge systems, threading both together to weave new meanings and ways of sharing. Hana works across a variety of media including textiles, raranga (weaving), ceramics, painting, performance, film, and sculpture.
When did it click?
I was living in Lisbon in Portugal just as the pandemic started, I was making these really elaborate earrings out of micro plastics I found at the beach. I showed them to this philosopher named Giovanni Tusa who liked them and asked if I enjoyed making them, that’s when I realised I could enjoy making art. It didn’t have to be this painful and anxious process.
What can we expect to see at your Broker exhibition?
I’ve been thinking a lot about colour and play since I had my daughter. It’s so much fun teaching her about the world through play. This exhibition is called Tākaro, which translates to a verb in Te reo Māori meaning ‘to play’. This really describes how I approach making art in general, but also how my worldview has changed dramatically since having a child. My friend the artist Jade Townsend once said that motherhood is like a sieve. It really is, because it peels everything back and makes you realise what’s valuable and important.
What are you currently exploring and how does this play out in your work?
I’m really interested in what kinship between all living and nonliving entities looks like, whether this is through whakapapa or the western philosophical canon I like to draw from both. This means how we as humans relate to our tupuna both human and non-human, so for example algae and bacteria, which are the earliest forms of life. I’ve been thinking a lot about how we build relationships between different life forms through whakapapa, but also how our bodies are made of 80% water and how the biggest organ we have is skin.
Alongside your visual art practice you are a respected writer of essays and poems, does one shape or move forward the other?
Definitely. I’m still figuring out how they sit together but for the most part I think reading widely informs both how and why I write and how and why I make art. Reading helps me make sense of the world and writing and making art are extensions of me trying to make sense of everything.
What’s your biggest barrier to being an artist?
Time. I wish I could be a full time artist, but I’m primarily a māmā and then also work as a research contractor and writer. It means I have to be mindful with my time and what I want to make, because I’m also limited by resources.
