On first looking into Chapman's Homer
Aotearoa New Zealand’s representative at the 2011 Venice Biennale, Michael Parekowhai, is no stranger to spectacle. The slick surfaces of his sculptures encase a playful yet shrewd engagement with the politics of bi-culturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand. True to form, his installation On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer is dominated by an attention-grabbing duo: a pair of giant bronze bulls atop two equally impressive bronze grand pianos. Its title is taken from a poem by Keats describing the conquistador Hernán Cortés gazing out over the Pacific from Central America. Between this oblique reference to colonialism and his magnificent bronze beasts, Parekowhai’s exhibition weaves together a complex iconography that focuses on the breath-taking wonder and potential exploitation of intercultural encounters.
The pairing of a muscular bull and a refined classical instrument is geared for an immediate visual impact. Well-sited on Venice’s Grand Canal, the grand Palazzo Loredan dell’Ambasciatore almost eclipses the theatricality of Parekowhai’s pieces themselves. The palazzo’s beautiful private garden offers a welcome retreat from the hectic pace of other Biennale venues, a green space to contemplate the work’s tricky conceptual twists. Nonetheless, it is the sweeping classical music coming from a third piano that leaves the first and most enduring impression of Parekowhai’s exhibition. The wooden surface of this Steinway is entirely covered in intricate carvings in a curious mix of Maori whakairo, tourist kitsch and other symbolic forms. Played throughout the show’s duration by a series of classically trained pianists, its music spills out beyond the palazzo walls, beckoning visitors through the maze of Venetian streets. While one bull, standing astride its piano base with horns lowered, challenges the viewer, it is this ephemeral music that, like a... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline