Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed this brief and exploring ideas I had not initially thought of when introduced. Challenging and engaging, the brief made me aware of how present labour is in my life. After the activations task, my work focused on the relationship between labourer and labour, and repetition in labour. During the development of my work, my ideas evolved into investigating small, overlooked gestures we perform to provide care for the environment around us. Removing tapu, blessing food, and cleansing the home, gestures and customs that show care for others and respect to the physical and spiritual world.
Tree of life, is my final documentation; capturing my family’s gesture to the earth by following the tradition of returning the placenta to the earth. The trees we stand by grow atop of our placenta’s, our whenua. This custom is popularly practised by Māori and other cultures, where the placenta is buried on the land significant to the child. It comes from the idea that we were first made from the body of Papatuanuku. Returning the placenta to Papatuanuku; connecting the child to the land of their birth, protecting their fertility and life. The audio of this work illustrates the opposite of the tree of life idea. Having an environmental aspect, it captures the action of cutting trees down.
“From earth people come and to earth they return.” (Home Birth Aotearoa, Whenua To Whenua, 2014).
This work explores the act of blessing food and karakia. Predominately a Christian practice and not a pre-colonial Māori practice, Māori bless their food with a karakia. Traditionally, karakia is used to acknowledge and thank the gods of the particular food prepared. For example, you would karakia to Rongo-mā-Tāne the god of cultivated foods and Tāne Mahuta the god of all birds if you had a meal of kūmara and bird meat. Rules about not eating specific foods together were placed as it would cause the gods to clash.
In the format of this video, I aimed to lay out the clips as if they were around a dinner table. Instead of having the audio of a karakia, there is the added sound of eating. Contrasting the documented labour of giving a prayer to food with the sound of its consumption. Drawing out the karakia’s sacredness through the silence the action holds; compared to the crunch in the sound produced.
A challenge from Antonia was to experiment with using audio to contrast the context of the video. The video explores further into taking shoes off before entering the house. I documented the labour of walking barefoot on grass, and how that affects contrasts walking barefoot inside. Counteracting the Māori prevention of the dust of Tūmatauenga from entering the domain of the god of peace, Rongo. By bringing out the Rongo’s peace to the dust of the god of war. The audio better communicates this connection. I’ve added a recorded track of mine where I walk along a gravel path. It contrasts the gentle properties of grass with the rough sound. Highlighting Tūmatauenga’s presence.
Eye care, explores the gesture of eye contact within a conversation. How the simple act of sustaining eye contact shows care and appreciation to the speaker. To extend the work I included audio of laughter while filming. Contrasting the seriousness in the frame to add sincerity to this staged video.
Research behind customs and gestures that show care towards people and deities explored in my work.
Removing tapu/ Whakanoa
Tapu is a term that is often used to convey the meaning ‘sacred’. It is a strong force in Maori life. Tapu can be observed in a person, object or place. It is strictly forbidden that you touch or, in some cases, approach something that is tapu. Noa is everything ordinary and lifts tapu. Allowing things to become normal.
A cemetery or urupā is tapu, and it is expected leaving you must wash your hands to make yourself noa again. Water is the most powerful agent for lifting tapu. Fresh or bottled, it is important that the water is running to reduce the tapu carried and return to the state of noa.
Blessing food/ Karakia Kai
Blessing food is a religious practice, predominately a Christian practice and not a pre-colonial Māori practice. However, Māori bless their food using a karakia. Traditionally, karakia is used to acknowledge and thank the gods of the particular food prepared. For example, you would karakia to Rongo-mā-Tāne the god of cultivated foods and Tāne Mahuta the god of all birds if you had a meal of kūmara and bird meat. Rules about not eating specific foods together were placed as it would cause the gods to clash.
Removing shoes
The most important reasoning for a no-shoe policy is to protect the household from bacteria and germs. Pathogens that cause disease that can attach to shoes while walking outside, or public restrooms. Slipping in the tread and cracks, where bacteria can travel on spread indoors. In Aotearoa, New Zealand, this gesture of care has stemmed from the Maori tradition of removing shoes before entering the wharenui. The purpose, to prevent the dust of Tūmatauenga, the god of war, from entering the domain of the god of peace, Rongo.
Burying placenta
This custom is popularly practised by Māori and other cultures. Traditionally the placenta or whenua is buried on the land connected to one or both of the child’s parents, or a place of ancestral connection. Returning the placenta to the earth mother, Papatuanuku, this practice connects the child to the land of their birth, symbolizing fertility and life. This tradition comes from the idea that we were first made from the body of Papatuanuku. Whenua is the placenta is symbolised as the tree of life that supports a baby, and the land.
“From earth people come and to earth they return.” (Home Birth Aotearoa, Whenua To Whenua, 2014).
Eye contact
During a conversation, eye contact is a powerful gesture that can make an individual feel appreciated and understood. It is a sign that you are a good listener, focused and paying attention to what is being said. By simply sharing eye contact builds trust and respect. Caring for the speaker as their words are validated by the attentiveness of the eye contact. Communicating to the talker that they and what they are saying is important.
Home Birth Aotearoa. “Whenua To Whenua”. September, 2014. https://homebirth.org.nz/magazine/article/whenua-to whenua/#:~:text=When%20a%20baby%20is%20born,to%20the%20place%20of%20birth.
I continued my work by using my two challenges. 1) Document gestures my household and I believe show care, and 2) Frame it as I did in my Silent Karakia work. Keep the soles outside shares the gesture of taking shoes off before entering the home. Now looking at the final result I think if I had included the interior carpet it would have created the contrast between the outside and in. As well as show the importance of why we take our shoes off, to protect households from bacteria and germs. However, this gesture of care has stemmed from the Maori tradition of removing shoes before entering the wharenui, to prevent the dust of Tūmatauenga, the god of war, from entering the domain of the god of peace, Rongo.
With the format, I played around with where the scene would fade out. If I were to put the longer clip first or last. The first follows the same format as my Silent Karakia, having the fastest clip to the left and continue down to the longest, like a timeline. The second takes into account the action of walking in a home. The first to remove their shoes enters the house before the last person.
This development explores the gesture of removing tapu or whakanoa. The spiritual restriction of the cemetery. This moment occurred before our departure from the cemetery. Restoring the sacredness of the cemetery, and allowing us to leave as noa, untouched and unrestricted. A transaction we cannot see but is felt spiritually and emotionally. I have added colour to the water to emphasise the water’s importance. That it is not only cleaning the hands of any germ but tapu. Unfortunately, the colour isn’t strong enough so this relationship isn’t well established.
The Dedicated Gamer
These works were a continuation of my photographic gathering. Suggested by Ben that I follow a person rather than a room. Because of the action, he is undertaking this work focuses more on leisure. So I tried to get moments when he moved up and down the stairs, during his lunch break. Despite him having time off due to the school holidays, I realised that he is more active during this time, compared to when he is at school. Which is currently online.
Public Share’s, Smoko, was a project where discarded clay collected from the Waterview tunnel was moulded into teacups. Clay dug up from the Alice tunnel site in Waterview, Auckland was made into a slip and poured into moulds. Together the collective produced more than 140 teacups, reflecting cups that workers in New Zealand used in their tea breaks.
From their collaborative work, I was drawn by the connection between labourers and the resources that were touched by them. Their downtime, rewarded by their work and labour. Relating to my practice of the invisible relationships made in acts of labour, whether it be between people, objects, or space. Objects of labour becoming one with the performer.
Brydee Rood
Brydee Rood, Everything Rises, 2020, digital video, https://www.circuit.org.nz/film/everything-rises.
Everything Rises, is an artist lead live installation of 38 people performing the action of walking along Takapuna Beach. It responds to the night skies, and the rising of the moon, tides, fire and climate. The participants follow the coastline as the tide comes in. The solar lights held by the group traces the tide under the rising full moon. The participants themselves become the night sky.
The video cuts between this documentation and clips of burning flames. Seven cuts to reflect the Matariki stars. Each clip shows a burning flame in a dark void, expressing ideas relating to burning, purification, a world in turmoil, changing weather patterns, forest fires, rising tides, the galaxy and our connection to the life of stars.
The use of solar lights held between by each member took my interest. As it physically connected all members together and fused them as one body. Revealing the shared experience, and connecting everyone together while performing the labour of following the tide. Rood’s concept of exploring our connection with stars and the greater galaxy is one I would like to look into more. Thinking about how our work and labour ripple affects others, and contributes to our world.
For this exercise, I took a series of photographs throughout the afternoon. Capturing the change of lighting, and motion occurring in the house. As a response to the sequential gathering, I collaged the photographs as one image, creating a still time-lapse.
