Red Spot Gallery - Rotorua Art Gallery supporting local artists

Jess Paraone

Jess Paraone
Nga Puhi, Ngati Kawau

Ko Taratara te maunga
Ko Te Touwai te awa
Te Touwai te whenua hoki.

Ko Ngatau te kuia
Ko Karangahape te Marae
He uri no Ngati Kawau ahau.

Putake Korowai explores the female indigenous identity through the politics of cultural hegemony that has left women and children the least protected of people in our communities.

Using the anthropomorphism central to ceramics I extend the familiar identity of the pot as a metaphor for the body. Further wrapping of the clay to create the ceramic form is a tangible reminder of the clothing of our indigenous self with korowai. The korowai in this context is a reference to the fabric of personal and collective identity in an age of modernity where indigenous knowing and identity is covertly subordinated by the “containment of thought” that is central to the act of hegemony and the disintegration of an indigenous belief and value systems.

Putake Korowai poses questions concerned with how we identify with and ultimately define our response to this reality. It invites the engagement of honest and empathetic conversation with our selves and each other, the courage required in lifting the veil of deception we employ to cope with the difficult truth, and that we bring critical reflection to the mahi of defining our identity and values within a contemporary multi cultural population whose identity has been subverted to that of the dominant culture.

our authentic voice will emerge from whatever false identity we have taken on…. Yogi Bhajan