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Wā We Can't Afford: Heidi Brickell

Hero image Heidi Brickell Wa we cant afford 2025 detail in progress courtesy of the artist.

Heidi Brickell, Wā we can’t afford (detail in progress), 2025. Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

22 Hui-tanguru – 17 Haratua 2025
22 February – 17 May 2025

Kua whanake te whakaaturanga o Wā We Can’t Afford, mai i te toronga tuatahi o Heidi Brickell i Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga me tana noho mai mō tōna ono wiki i te hiku o te 2024.

I roto i āna mahi ko tā Brickell he tūhura i te āhua o tā tātau hīkoi i te ao nei me te pānga ki te mātauranga Māori, ngā mōhioranga tangata me ngā mātauranga mō te taiao māori. Hei te whakaaturanga o Wā We Can’t Afford, he rite tonu tana whakakotahi i ngā āhuatanga hou me ngā āhuatanga kua whakamātauria, ngā tikanga toi me ngā matū—pēnei i te whakairo, te kōwhaiwhai, te puninga, te tārai me te peita. E hāngai ana āna puninga toi ki te hanga o te whare toi, te hirahira o te āhuarangi me ngā wai o Te Matau-a-Māui.

Kua whakamahia e Brickell te paewai me te rimurapa, kitea ai ki ngā takutai o Ōtaki me Te Raekaihau, he pānga nui tō ēnei rawa pūrewa, manawaroa nei ki te hurihanga ora o te moana me te whenua, he whakatinanatanga o te puahiri me te paraheahea i te pae o te whenua me te moana, o Tāne rāua ko Tangaroa. Whakamahia ai te rimurapa mō te rokiroki kai, e mōhiotia ana tana āhei ki te whakapunga i a ia anō i ngā tai tuarangaranga, engari e whakatumahia ana e ngā tai mahana. I te āhua ki te paewai, ahakoa tana āwhina ki te whakapōturi i te ngahorotanga ā-takutai me te whai nōhanga, e tuwhene ana ngā toenga topenga rākau, ā, he rite tonu te whakahokinga o ngā mahara ki te patunga o Te Matau-a-Māui me Te Tairāwhiti e huripari Kapariera.

Ka haere tahi ēnei matū me tētahi “peita pahū”, he kānawehi kua whakairia ki ngā wāhi rerekē i te whare toi mō ngā pūrākau, ngā awa me ngā mīanga. Kua herea he aho muramura ki tētahi waea hangore, ā, ka whakaritea he hangarewa, pihi nei, e toro ana ki ngā huānga rerekē me te ngana kia herea te katoa. Nā te paheketanga ohaoha me ngā āhuatanga o te taiao he mea tapa e te ringatoi tana whakaaturanga (e kōrero ana te wā mō te taima me te hāngai ki te hononga, te mahi tahi me te pohewatanga) kia arohia nuitia te whakapūmautanga o ngā hononga.

Kei Ōtaki a Heidi Brickell (Te Hika o Pāpāuma, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-ā-Rua, Rongomaiwahine, Rangitāne, Ngāi Tara, Ngāti Apakura, Airihi, Kōtimana, Ingarangi, Tiamana) e noho ana. I kuraina ki te kura kaupapa Māori, ā, he hua o te whakarauora reo. I whakaaturia āna mahi ki ngā whakaaturanga toi hou o ngā whare toi tūmatawhānui o te motu, ā, whakaaturia ai āna mahi ki te whare toi o Laree Payne. I te 2022-23 i whakaaturia tana whakaaturanga takitahi, a PAKANGA FOR THE LOSTGIRL ki Te Whare Toi o Te Wai Ngutu Kākā ki Tāmaki Makaurau ki Ōtautahi, ki Pōneke anō hoki.

 

Wā We Can’t Afford has grown from Heidi Brickell’s time as Te Whare Toi o Heretaunga Hastings Art Gallery’s inaugural visiting artist, spending six weeks in residence during late 2024.

Across her practice Brickell explores how we navigate the world in relation to mātauranga Māori and the human knowledge and wisdom held in relation to our natural environment. In Wā We Can’t Afford, she continues to meld experimental and customary forms, techniques, and materials—from whakairo and kōwhaiwhai to installation, sculpture, and painting. Her installation responds to the unique geometry of the gallery’s architecture, and the significance of the climate and bodies of water in orienting herself in Te Matau-a-Māui Hawke’s Bay.

Brickell has worked with paewai (driftwood) and rimurapa (native bull kelp) found along the shores of Ōtaki and Te Raekaihau. These buoyant, resilient materials play crucial roles in the life cycles of both land and sea, embodying turbulence and vulnerability at the thresholds between whenua and moana, Tāne and Tangaroa. Rimurapa, traditionally used for preserving food and known for its ability to anchor in rough waters, faces threats from warming seas. Driftwood, while helping to slow coastal erosion and providing habitats, also accumulates in excess due to forestry slash and serves as a constant reminder of Cyclone Gabrielle’s impact on the shores of Te Matau-a-Māui and the East Coast.

Alongside these materials is an “exploded painting” on pieces of mounted canvas placed around the gallery, based on pūrākau (ancient stories), rivers and tributaries. Brightly coloured thread has been wound around flexible wire, and moulded into tendril-like forms that reach out to grasp at different elements, grappling with binding them together. In the precarious economic and environmental conditions of the present, the artist’s choice of title (wā referring to “time” with implications of connection, collaboration, and imagination) invokes the urgency of attending to our most fundamental and sustaining relationships.

Heidi Brickell (Te Hika o Pāpāuma, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Tāmaki-nui-ā-Rua, Rongomaiwahine, Rangitāne, Ngāi Tara, Ngāti Apakura, Airihi, Kōtimana, Ingarangi, Tiamana) is based in Ōtaki with a background in Kura Kaupapa Māori education and te reo Māori revitalisation. Her work has recently featured in major surveys of national contemporary art in public galleries and is regularly exhibited at Laree Payne Gallery. From 2022-23 her solo exhibition PAKANGA FOR THE LOSTGIRL was toured from Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery in Tāmaki Mākaurau Auckland to Ōtautahi Christchurch and Pōneke Wellington.

Thank you to Toi Aotearoa Creative New Zealand for their support of the visiting artist programme.

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