Tracey Tawhiao Inspired Art

 In art, we have been looking at Maori artists. The artist I chose was Tracey Tawhiao. She is famous for her works done on western newspaper and painting over them with traditional Maori art. This is a good example of subversion. From there, our task was to create an artwork that's based on our theme. My theme is equality. To start this, we took a look at newspapers and/or magazines and we chose parts, pictures and words to keep from it. The goal was to twist the message into the message/theme we were trying to portray, much like Tawhiao does with her work. We then photocopied our original newspaper/magazine and printed in out on to a different paper texture - one suitable for painting on.

The original magazine page I chose was about missionaries being imprisoned for trying to share the gospel in countries where it may be illegal. I took words and images from it and tried to turn the message into how being are being imprisoned for what they stand up in: a clear example where there is inequality.

This is the work that I did-

Symbols that I used plus their significance:

Broken/barb-wired dull heart- I added this to show how people were being put in prison and in trouble for standing up for what they believe in; showing that they are prevented from free choice. It can also be a symbol of their hopes and spirits being broken by others.

Two weapons overlapping- The two weapons shown are a modern western gun and a traditional Maori weapon (Patu). This relates to the early days when Pakeha came to New Zealand, offered a treaty, before stealing the land away from them and colonising Aotearoa. Also, Maori are more likely to get racial comments and be treated differently from white people living here.

Rope with a knot- I aimed for this symbol to have the idea of unity and everyone joining together. So while some of my art shows inequality, there are a few symbols that show the contrary.

Traditional Maori art- In the bottom left corner, I added this part that was inspired by Tracey Tawhiao. I like her distinct idea of subversion and I thought the idea would work well in my piece. Again, this can relate to the unequal events that happened to the Maori during the signing of the treaty and even up to this day. The work 'torture' is also there, suggesting that the artwork isn't there to show how they were treated equally.

Earth- The globe is a simple representation of everyone. For example, how we all come from the same place and we are all in this world together, therefore there is no need for inequality to be present in this world.

Humanity with the chained ball- We are all humans, that much is obvious. However, as humanity, we are weighed down by diversity and our differences. This is quite true when we look at everyday news and see the bad and evil happening around the world such as hate speech and attack.

Dove- With all the negative messages I included in my artwork, I put a dove there to even the message out a tiny bit. Doves are known to be a sign of peace and hope, and I added it so it serves as hope that the future will be better and there'll be more equality in our community. It's also plain white and bright, compared to the dull and coloured other symbols, to make it stand out more and carry out its message with it getting twisted.

Handcuffs- This refers to the prison theme and relates to what I said earlier about people being imprisoned for standing up for what they believe in.

Two images (in the corners)- The two photos in the top left corner and the bottom right corner are from the original magazine page. I chose to keep it because it shows distress and is a good symbol to show that the messages in my artwork aren't so much positive, rather highlighting the inequality we have in this world. Actually, these photos that you see are cut out from the original magazine and pasted on top of the photocopied version. This is because I painted the entire thing with a white base and put masking tape over everything I wanted to keep. When I removed the masking tape, the images underneath had faded and white patches all over the photos. That's when I had the idea to just use the original photos over the top so it wouldn't ruin the overall quality of the artwork.

Words I kept- Some words I included are 'beatings, darkness, suffering'. These words are all negative and are a result of unequal treatment in the world. I also kept bigger words such as 'in prison' and 'prisoners' to show the prison theme. The phrase 'I am not ashamed' was included to further give the message that these people are being mistreated for standing up for their beliefs. There are also two positive words which are 'happiness' and 'joyful' because they chose to stand up for when they believe in until the point that they were arrested. Because of that, I think they are happy with what they've done and wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Tears- The black tears in the paper are there to fit in with the negative prison theme and attract attention to the piece to show the rough things that these people go through fighting for equality.