PATAKA EDUCATION, Term 1, 2013
Kia ora koutou katoa, nga mihi nui.
Kia ora koutou. Welcome back to 2013 and some great exhibitions to start your year on. Face to face with original art works enhances and compliments classroom learning. Provide your students with powerful opportunities for learning, inquiry and enjoyment with a visit to Pataka. At Pataka the learning opportunities we provide are grounded in culture.
This term we are visiting the Pacific with a focus on Melanesia. Our programme will explore the cultural function of baskets and the designs and motifs used. We will discuss the significant events, stories and history of Melanesia with this programme.
Baskets of Melanesia
9 March - 23 June 2013
This exhibition showcases the craft of basket making throughout the Melanesian Islands. It explores the different materials used, the shapes and forms of the woven baskets and their traditional uses. Go on a journey throughout Melanesia with this wonderful art form. Melanesian countries include Timor or Leste, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands,
Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
Image: Ruth Nuttall, Timor-Leste basket
The Black Islands - Spirit and War in Melanesia
Photographs by Ben Bohane
2 February - 21 April 2013
Photo journalist, writer and documentary maker Ben Bohane has spent the last twelve years posting stories about life on the islands of Melanesia. Bohane not only documents Kastom
or customary resistance and rituals, political and revolutionary aspects of Melanesia but also the people he meets, landscape, totems and architectural detail that explore culture.
Image: Ben Bohane, OPM guerrilla and crowd, West Papua highlands, 1995
PRE AND POST ACTIVITIES:
> FIND a map of Melanesia and identify the main islands and languages
> WEAVE with some paper or even harekeke
> CREATE a fact file on the countries that make up Melanesi
> FIND OUT how the Pacific is divided up and why?
> FIND OUT what the function of baskets are?
> DISCOVER what baskets from Melanesia are made from and how do they colour/dye the material
Same Difference – Warwick Smith
9 March - 16 June 2013
This is an exhibition exploring time, diversity and family relationships. Separated by four generations, great grandchildren and great grandparents are captured side by side in a stunning black and white portrait. The many diverse cultures present in Porirua will be represented and photographed by photographer Warwick Smith. Develop a programme with us about portraiture and we will even discuss genetics with this programme.
Image: Warwick Smith, Mahu & Jovane
PRE AND POST ACTIVITIES:
> CREATE a generational portrait gallery in your classroom
> HAVE a class quiz and match up your ancestors with your fellow class members
> FIND OUT what the face proportions are and make a self portrait
> WRITE a short story based on an interview with your grandparents, find out what similarities you have with them
Niki Hastings-McFall: In Flyte
2 February - 16 June 2013
Multimedia artist Nikki Hastings McFall presents a survey of fifteen years of her creative practice. This exhibition is filled with colour and combines Hastings McFall’s urban upbringing and Samoan heritage. Synthetic $2 dollar shop flowers, lei, light boxes, dioramas and lamp sculpture series are a part of her media. Our programme will explore the use of readymades and assemblage with every day and familiar objects.
IMAGE: Niki Hastings-McFall, Red Moana, 2007
PRE AND POST ACTIVITIES:
> CREATE an artist profile page on Nikki Hastings-McFall
> MAKE a ula out of recycled materials
> DISCUSS what you think it means to be an ‘urban artist’
> FIND a space around your school make a Niki Hastings-McFall inspired installation
> MAKE a diorama out of collected small toys and slotted cardboard shapes
To book a class or for more information phone or email Pataka Education:
Tel: (04) 237 3551 – Fax: (04) 237 4527
Email: patakaeductaion@pcc.govt.nz
