HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 577: 17 August 2011

Art Signs of Community, Homeland

Something big is going down at Club Bana in the Banana Court on Thursday at 6pm sharp. An art exhibition entitled, “Te Au Akairo O Toku Matakeinanga- The Signs of My Community” will take place at the art gallery at Club Bana with pieces of artwork so fine, you would think that they ought to be displayed in an art gallery in Paris. The “Homeland” theme that these multi talented local artists have based their artwork around is also the same theme as this upcoming Te Maeva Nui. You can really feel the emotion coming out of the art because they are so visual and the artists have used a variety of techniques to “put that emotion out on display,” as it were. Every piece of art has a story behind it and it is truly a discovery.
The lovely Tarita Hutchinson was so kind as to show me around the art gallery. “Every artist has their own way of working,” she says. The artists’ creativity was obvious. Some of the materials used were acrylics on canvas, pastel on canvas, oil on canvas and photography. I have to say, that the pastel piece of work was my favourite. I really shouldn’t be so picky but there was something about that particular piece of art that really captured my attention.
I asked if there were any challenges or obstacles that got in the way of organizing the exhibition. “There were quite a few,” Tarita laughs. “One of them was the artists meeting the deadline. Since artists usually like to work at their own pace, to get the best results possible for their artwork, it clashes with the deadline.”
There is a total of 19 artists’ altogether, some hailing from the islands of Atiu and Mitiaro. There was even a mixture of ethnic, a Filipino here and a German there. One of the main reasons for the exhibition is to keep our culture alive and preserving our culture is just one way of doing that. Good job, guys!

Herald Issue 554 09 March
- Norm exposes Trio of Doom
- Briefs from PM’s media conference Tuesday
- Tourism Industry ponders $5 million draft strategy
- Norman George resigns from Cook Islands Party
- Letter of Resignation from CIP
- Norman selfish says Prime Minister

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