Pae o te Rangi

Colleen Waata Urlich

(Te Popoto o Ngāpuhi ki Kaikohe, Ngāti Kahu)

Toi Te Maihi

(Ngaati Ipu, Ngāi Te Apata o Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Hao o Taitokerau)

Hemi Macgregor

(Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tūhoe)

Gina Matchitt

(Te Arawa, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Ngahere)

Curated by – Larissa McMillan

(Te Parawhau, Ngāpuhi)

Pae o Te Rangi presents four celebrated Māori artists, whose work allows us to view the world through a visual language that speaks across generations and traditional practices.

Horizontal and vertical planes continue to be a foundational structure within Māori art; a living duality embodied by Papatuanuku and Ranginui. These intersections and alignments create a visual rhythm, dancing the eye across, through, and into the works. They guide the viewer through layered realms, enacting a passage between the physical and the metaphysical.

This dynamic traces its whakapapa to raranga; the practice of weaving. In the interlacing of aho (weft), whenu (warp), and whatu (binding point), the material world was made manifest. The patterns of tāniko, with their precise, deliberate crossings, offer an ancient expression of visual philosophy within Te Ao Māori — a sophisticated language of partnership & separation, harmony & tension, consistency and change. Each line carries intent and communication. In this matrix, the logic of Māori visual culture emerges: a worldview structured by layered meanings, and careful balance.

In this choreography of planes, the viewer is not a distant observer, but a participant drawn into the gravitational pull of the work. We become an active part in the eternal exchange between Papatūānuku and Ranginui.

He tūāpapa ngā rārangi poutū me ngā rārangi huapae o te toi Māori. Ko ēnei rārangi e tohu ana i te hononga i waenga i a Papatūānuku rāua ko Ranginui. He mea ārahi ēnei rārangi i te tirohanga kanohi, ā, he reo kawe hoki i te hunga mātakitaki, mai i te ao kikokiko ki te ao wairua, hoki atu anō.

He ariā ēnei nō te ao raranga. Mā te aho, te whenu me te whatu e kikokiko ai ko te ao tūroa. He reo nō tuauki te tāniko, ā, kei roto i ōna whatunga ngā whakaaro hōhonu o te ao Māori - e kōrero ana mō te kotahitanga me te wehenga, te taurite me te tohe, te pūmautanga me te panoni. He kupu, he kōrero whai take kei ia rārangi. Ka kitea te whakaaro arorau o te ao toi Māori i roto i te whatunga – he tirohanga ara rau, taurite hoki.

I tēnei whakaaturanga, ka tōia ko te kaimātaki ki roto ki te ao o te toi e mātaki nei ia. Horekau he tauwehenga; he whenu tātou katoa o te taura here mutunga kore i waenga i a Papatūānuku rāua ko Ranginui.