"Player Breaker Dancer Faker: Natalie Robertson"
2005-03-08 until 2005-04-08
Bartley Nees Gallery
Wellington, , NZ New Zealand (Aotearoa)

Marlon Brando, Pocahontas, Maui’s brothers, and 6-year old break-dancing twins all make guest appearances in this exhibition. Player Breaker Dancer Faker plays among the Trickster spirits who inhabit the folklore and mythology of many peoples and cultures. Trickster can be difficult to pin down, as she or he, as animal or human, can be both kind and cruel, deceiver and deceived, breaker of taboos and creator of culture. Trickster is a shapeshifter and a change agent.

In the Pacific, Trickster plays an important role, where the superhero Maui of a Thousand Tricks (Maui Tikitiki a Taranga) is known for many acts that tested boundaries and hierarchies. Maui is acknowledged as the ancestor who fished up the island, Te Ika A Maui that we inhabit, a genealogy recalled by Robertson’s iwi, Ngati Porou.

Robertson’s research on the Trickster was undertaken during the residency Intranation: Struggles, Conflicts, Negotiations in the Arts at the Banff Centre for The Arts in Alberta, Canada, May-July 2004. The Trickster Manifesto, from which the title of the show is taken, was written as part of the collaborative project Trickster (UnSettler), with Hemi McGregor and Danny Butt.

IMAGE
Natalie Robertson
11/11 - image1
2004-5
photographic c-print on metallic paper

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for New Zealand

Other Important Exhibitions in Wellington