Island Crossings, an exhibition of contemporary Maori and Pacific art from Aotearoa (New Zealand) was curated by Giles Peterson and developed in partnership with Pacific Age Art, New Zealand. The exhibition and associated events celebrated the resilience of Maori, Samoan, and Pacific Island cultures, creating a number of links between different communities, histories and artforms. Outsiders were provided with an insight into the customs, heritage and creativity of these peoples, and were welcomed into the space as honoured guests. Island Crossings presented a diverse range of creative styles and media by seventeen contemporary Maori and Pacific artists, and in the process revealed some political, cultural and personal concerns of their communities. As the title suggests, the themes of migration and cross-cultural exchanges were of central importance to this project, and the diversity evident in the artwork was partly due to the diversity and richness of Maori and Pacific cultures, and the fusion of traditional and contemporary artforms. Wood carving, weaving, jewellery making, textiles, painting, tattooing, singing and dancing are some of the traditional creative practices that were presented through Island Crossings, with a number of artists integrating these forms with other creative practices such as installation, assemblage, video, performance, photography, sculpture and fashion.
Overall it was a powerful exhibition, although I must confess that I found the work of women artists to be especially refined and engaging. Lonnie Hutchinson, Niki Hastings-McFall, Kim Fraser and Frances Palu offered outstanding mixed media works that amalgamated traditional 'decorative' arts with contemporary fine art practices. Lonnie Hutchinson, a Samoan/Maori (Ngai Tahu) artist, reworked the traditional design of a seed-necklace, often given to visitors as a welcoming gesture, as a large wall-mounted sculpture entitled Malaga