A Maternal Lens is a group exhibition curated by Ema Tavola featuring new work by Aotearoa New Zealand-based artists, Margaret Aull, Julia Mage’au Gray, Leilani Kake, Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai and Vaimaila Urale.

The exhibition has engaged specifically artists who are mothers / parents to emphasise the importance of their societal roles as agents of cultural transmission. Mothers are necessarily fluid, emotionally intelligent and represent the interface of ancestral connections between the past and the present.

The installations, video works, and sculptural forms privilege natural elements that connect Casablanca to Aotearoa New Zealand; the moon, the stars and the ocean. The artists bring representations of their own maternal, cultural and metaphysical belief systems embedded in collective cultural heritage from the Pacific Island nations of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Sāmoa, Tonga and Aotearoa New Zealand.

The presence of the artists at the opening of the exhibition emphasises the vital role of engagement, brokering relationships and connection for indigenous people. By opening the space with sound, movement and tattoo, the artists will activate La Coupole as a site of Oceanic presence, connected by almost 19,600km of water and the universality of the maternal condition.

https://amaternallens.com/

About the artwork

Mea Ila Ila embraces sand as a natural earthly resource with a sprinkling of biodegradable glitter. The iridescence and shine of both materials is intoxicating, and are materials we love to play with. The floor based installation reflects the constant rhythm, structures and routines which motherhood shapes and forms.

Sāmoan symbolism is the foundation of my art practice. Specifically, the use of two symbols traditionally employed in Sāmoan artforms such as tatau (tattoo) and tapa (bark cloth). Incorporating the digital language of ASCII (American Standard Code of Information Interchange) and symbols found on universal keyboards, my artworks begin as digital formats.

The fa’avae tuli symbol, is derived from the sand footprint of the tuli bird a Sāmoan native shore bird, and is represented by the greater than and less than characters < >. The tusi lili’i symbols are lines on a coconut leaf, and are represented by the backslash and forward slash keyboard characters / \.

I was born in the coastal village of Fagamalo, on the island of Savai’I in what was known as Western Sāmoa, now known as Sāmoa. An immigrant, I have lived in Aotearoa New Zealand since I was one year old. I am a mother of two daughters, Manamea Ela Lepo Taylor (5), and Anivanuanua Thelma Lepo Taylor (4).

Mea Ila Ila or shiny things, is a meditation on motherhood. Raising daughters to be comfortable with the Sāmoan language, values, family, relationships, takes work. Nurturing an environment conducive to a worldview that is my version of being Sāmoan is a daily challenge. I feed them words to counter certain Western ideals around concepts of individuality, ownership, superheroes, gender roles, commercialism and the need to have things.