Te Rongo Kirkwood
My work is totally intuitive. It comes from the gap between the thoughts.
She was offered commissions to paint when she was just a teenager, clearly a rising star in the art world.
Now mother of two, Te Rongo Kirkwood, 36, has turned her talent from painting, to a more unusual medium, glass. And her work, which uniquely weaves traditional Maori design with a contemporary material, is keenly sought both here and overseas.
She is one of over 200 leading and emerging contemporary Maori artists who have been invited to the biennial MAORI ART MARKet, held this year at Porirua City’s Te Rauparaha Arena on October 9, 10 and 11.
It will be the largest collection of contemporary Maori artwork ever assembled. More than 2000 items including paintings, jewellery, clay work, sculpture, carving, weaving, fashion, worth more than $3 million will be on sale direct from the artists and invited galleries.
Te Rongo’s iwi is Ngatai te Tamaki, a Tainui based hapu – originally in Auckland city. She is Auckland born and bred, now living in the North Shore.
“As a teenage artist, I really wasn’t able to cope with the business side of things…..so I decided to go travelling.
She ended up living in the UK for 12 years and went into the corporate world of human resource management.
It was while living in London, that Te Rongo was introduced to an American artist; Danny Lane, a renown glass sculptor who had a number of commissions for public spaces.
“Danny did massive architectural sculptures with blown glass – he had a big outdoor team. I was over awed by his work. I had never considered glass until I saw his work.”
The opportunity to work with glass did not come until Te Rongo returned to New Zealand. With one child and another on the way, she realized she didn’t want to do the corporate thing any more. She needed to be creative.
“I wasn’t really complete without that. So I thought – this is a good time to learn about glass.”
With two young children, the option of doing a formal course of three to four years in Wanganui (the only one offering glasswork), was not ideal, so
Te Rongo decided to get a kiln and teach herself.
With no formal training, but her own talent and the gift of a creative cultural heritage behind her, the glasswork that began to emerge from Te Rongo’s kiln was almost as much a surprise to its creator as to anyone…
“I don’t set out to make really cultural pieces; it is just how it comes out. I have learnt not to question the inspiration. I just do it. And usually it makes sense once it is made. I’m probably different from other artists in that I don’t have the strong kaupapa (theme) that many artists would have. I don’t have that base. But it happens to be very strongly flavoured by my cultural heritage – all of them are – because they come from me, and that is part of me.”
Te Rongo describes her glasswork as being more abstract than functional – she is interested in sculptural form first and foremost. Wall pieces are a favourite.
“Some are very strongly Maori in that they resonate with a deep presence and spirituality – like a carving……Every piece has its own life.
“Quite a lot of the pieces I do are symbolic reflections of an emotion or energy flow. And then there are several prices that might be related to an ancestor – like a wall piece that would have a deeper resonance because it is a personification of someone. I’d draw a similarity to what a carver would do.
“My work is totally intuitive……..It comes from the gap between the thoughts.”
The creative works from the gap quickly found an international following.
Two years ago, and only a year after choosing to direct her talent to glasswork, Te Rongo was a finalist in the Australian Ranamok awards.
The 33 finalists from Australia and New Zealand receive huge exposure and kudos from the Ranamok, with their work forming an exhibition to travel Australia.
Last year, she was a ‘best seller’ in Toi Maori’s ‘Small Treasures’ exhibition in San Francisco; where her work was picked up by the owner of Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver. It is now exhibited there.
She was also a finalist in the Molly Morpeth awards, a New Zealand competition, for two years running and she was ‘best in class’ at the Easter Show in Auckland this year.
Waitakere City Council has selected Te Rongo for a commission for a public sculpture. The twin streams project, is an impressive five metre, steel, wood and glass sculpture. Te Rongo has designed the concept to reflect the ecology of the area and the people who lived there. Her own whakapapa is tied to those tribes.
Te Rongo is excited about the twin streams project, as it is her first large scale public work. And it is her goal to create more of these architectural works.
“I am interested in doing ‘big stuff’. It was such a thrill to see Danny’s work and to see what can be achieved architecturally. I can see there is so much potential for it to be used ….. I really want to use glass in a different way than people normally associate it with – that is, in sculptural works, as opposed to craft objects.”
But, she says she loves ‘anything to do with glass’.
“I love doing it. It doesn’t feel like work to me – it feels like play, though there is a downside. The heartache with a piece gets broken.”
Each piece takes from a month to six weeks to create. She also does small pieces, such as pendants.
The wider public will have an opportunity to view and purchase Te Rongo’s glasswork at the Maori Art Market next month.
“I am working on a really big wall piece for the Maori Art Market. It is a person with wings. Other works will be sculptural forms using colours woven in and out.”
“I am really grateful for the opportunity to be included (in Maori Art Market). As an emerging artist it is a real honour to have that opportunity.
“Since coming back to New Zealand it has been so amazing. Wonderful people have come out of nowhere to support me in what I am trying to do.
“Amazing woman like Colleen Urlich, Gabrielle Belze, June Grant. They have helped make things happen. I’ve had huge support. From an inspirational point of view these Maori woman artists have been the ones I really look up to.
“They are so strong in themselves. I really admire them. The way that they support and nurture young artists is really, really great. I hope I can be like that.
“It’s about sharing. They rejoice in each other’s accomplishments and they feel it is their own. When someone does well, they all share it. It’s really awesome.
“In society we are taught to be competitive. And there is really no need, because the world has so much room for every expression.
“A lot of my work has undertones of that…. as in, ‘where the hell are we going? - as a collective. Quite a few of my pieces have references to human consciousness. My focus is on the broader consciousness: what are we valuing? What are we leaving our children in terms of the way that we think about ourselves and the world?
“In a way I use glasswork as a way of me expressing my own perspective and lessons I am going through at the moment; and observations and understanding.
So it is always changing – because I am constantly changing as a person.
“When I first started my work I was looking at the strength and power of being female – and then that changed. So I thought ‘I must have resolved that issue’, because then I moved on to something else. Now it is about an energy perspective, strong colours are going in, reds and black, a reference and acknowledgement of my shadow self – the other side of me. We like to pretend that the other side doesn’t exist.
“If I just switch in to the stillness – it all depends on what comes through. I don’t question it anymore. I used to think ‘what am I doing this for’, now I just go with it.
“Glass has become my teacher. It is teaching me to trust my intuition.”
Written by Freelance writer Linda George for immediate use, Tel 027 251 2622, (04) 976 9927. Supplied by Toi Maori on behalf of the MAORI ART MARKet or contact Iain Morrison Tel 04 473 7980 or 021 688 668.