Fruits in the Backwater is a new series of artworks by Kerry Ann Lee

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Berenice Daniels
5 years ago
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1 Fruits in the Backwater is a new series of artworks by Kerry Ann Lee that dissects and celebrates relationships relationships between objects and people, people and politics, politics and culture. Of course relationships are also dependent on perspective, and this series of works explores these dynamics in relation to globalisation and Aotearoa New Zealand cultural politics. As source material for these works, Lee takes images from the media and commercial advertising and locates these objects in relation to locally specific reference points. Many of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century objects depicted in these works could be found almost anywhere in the world, but locating these images within the context of Aotearoa New Zealand Lee is able to create coded messages about nationhood and globalisation, while also allowing the viewer to interpret this graphic lexicon through their own subjective lens. Through this approach Lee is able to address difficult cultural and political subject matter. In undertaking this endeavour, she draws on relationships with friends and artists across Aotearoa New Zealand and the world, responding to their influences and insights to show just how much our nation s unique bi-cultural foundations have shaped our multicultural understanding of the world, and our position within it. The essays, poems and insights contributed to this publication by Lee s friends and collaborators demonstrate the range of worldviews and insights that inform her sense of belonging. Their words speak of the nuances that make New Zealand New Zealand, and of the value of difference. These voices inform the images in the exhibition and through this symbiosis Lee is able to plot a path through the landscape of her own life and times. In making this exhibition possible, Pātaka Art + Museum would like to acknowledge Peter Parussini, Timuaki Ratonga Rangapū at ANZ Bank for supporting this project and the new New Zealand season of exhibitions. Reuben Friend Director, Pātaka Art + Museum

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4 Between Here and There Ko Tosh taku ingoa, ko hāwhekāihe ngā tātangata hainamana. I ve never been to China, but I ve always identified as Kiwi-Chinese and more recently spacifically Asian. To be Asian in New Zealand we think of the Chinese or Japanese, but what of the Ah Chee, the Ah Yee, the Ah kits, the Samoans, Tahitians, Fijian Indians, Koreans, Malaysian-Chinese -Indonesian combos? If I were to go back to my great grandfather s village I don t know if it would still exist, however I know it would not be home to me. The culture of my ancestors was kept alive in me through my grandmother by the food we ate, the beliefs she held and the fact she refused to speak English at home (even though I discovered one day when I went to work with her that she had perfect English). I try to instil those same values in my daughter; together we learn Te Reo Māori and when she first asked why? I told her if we lived in France we d learn French, but we live here so we learn Te Reo. I also like to remind her that even though she s fair-haired and blueeyed, she s still Chinese and that her place in Aotearoa is a result of five generations of her Chinese family calling this island at the end of world home. I feel that holding on to that little bit of her ancestry is more important now than ever. Through that 25% non-european part of her, she will always have an access point to empathise with the non-dominant culture. Growing up behind the hospital in Newtown, Wellington in the early 80 s was like living in a secret society ruled by kids. While the grown ups spent their time complaining about a man I thought was called Mold Doom we ruled the streets. Nurses and doctors would try to park their cars in the staff car park but they would have to wait until we were finished before we chose to get off he road. We were a rabble of kids whose families were Maori, Chinese, Samoan, Indian, Fijian and we could all insult each other in at least three languages. We were the wildlings of Newtown. The summers were for fighting wars against kids who lived in neighbouring streets and then making friends with them when the older boy needed all of the little kids to stand and be fielders while they played cricket. When someone got hungry it was the nearest grown ups responsibility to feed all the kids standing in the doorway. Until I started school I never thought there was anything different between me and the other kids. My family wanted me to be smart, and for them that meant sending me to a private school. That should have meant the best education; the reality was however that in that school I was the only half-caste kid. The other Chinese kids didn t believe I was Chinese and the European kids said I wasn t white enough. At school I was shy and had no friends. I didn t even know that I was different until then, and after that I spent many years trying not to stand out by trying to make my hair straight (unsuccessfully) and my eyes slantier (which is probably why I wear glasses now). Outside of school nobody ever said to me that I wasn t kiwi enough, the kids I played with asked what it was like to go to a fancy school and thought I was smarter because of it. What united us was the fact that we were kids, we all had parents who were out working multiple jobs and we were all born in Aotearoa. This was my earliest experience of living between two realities. On the one hand I knew I was privileged and had to be grateful because my grandparents and my Mum worked hard to send me to a private school on the other hand I hated being the outsider at that school and wished I could go to school with my friends. As an adult now with a child of my own in Aotearoa New Zealand, those childhood experiences taught me to always see that every side has multiple realities. Perhaps that is the aim of biculturalism, to see that the notion of belonging involves embracing the many hybrid pocket cultures that being from here creates. At the end of the day we are not going anywhere, and if we don t belong here then where? Tosh Ahkit 6 7

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Rā Whānau SUZANNE AUBERT! 19 June 2018 is Suzanne Aubert s 183rd Birthday. You are invited to join the celebration!

Rā Whānau SUZANNE AUBERT! 19 June 2018 is Suzanne Aubert s 183rd Birthday. You are invited to join the celebration! Rā Whānau SUZANNE AUBERT! 'Always pick the little flower of hope' 19 June 2018 is Suzanne Aubert s 183rd Birthday You are invited to join the celebration! ' Make a bunch of flowers for Suzanne Aubert s