Event Brett Graham

Brett Graham

Artist talk

1 February 2023
6–7pm

  • Event Cost:
    Free

Join contemporary Māori sculptor Brett Graham and IMA Director Robert Leonard, as they discuss Graham’s ambitious 2020 exhibition Tai Moana Tai Tangata and other recent projects. Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui) is known for his large-scale sculptures exploring indigenous histories, politics, and philosophies. As an artist versed in the language of public sculpture, Graham has created haunting, enigmatic, alternative war memorials. Tai Moana Tai Tangata combined architecturally-scaled structures with haunting panoramic landscape videos to address the trauma of the New Zealand Wars through the experience of Tainui and Taranaki iwi—former adversaries who forged a pact of solidarity in resistance to colonisation. Conceived as an alternative war memorial (or an anti-war memorial), it prompts us to remember or accuses us for not knowing.

Brett Graham 'Maungārongo ki te Whenua Maungārongo ki te Tangata' 2020.

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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