I'd like to share a life-changing art collaboration that was captured on film and became a feature documentary on Maori TV and at the FIFO international film festival this year.
I was among six New Zealand artists, three Maori and three non-Maori, who were treated to an intensive workshop on the Treaty of Waitangi. As it happens, I desperately needed this because of a lack of quality treaty education at school. We then paired up to create cross-cultural collaborative artworks during one jam-packed, sleep-deprived, amazing weekend at Te Tii Marae in Northland, New Zealand.
I collaborated with Samapeap Tarr, a Cambodian / New Zealand graffiti artist who is a master with a brush and blank ink.
The two of us painted a huge 2 x 2metre work together called Te Pou Tuatahi, which combines our styles and yet is totally different to anything either of us have done before.
Check out the creative magic that happens in this 15 minute cut down version of the documentary Canvassing The Treaty that focusses on the collaboration between Samapeap and I.
Through the project I gained self-knowledge, friendship, an in-depth perspective on the treaty and experienced my first and best art collaboration.
Any questions about the experience or the artwork? Let me know.
STAY TUNED FOR THE ONLY ONLINE RELEASE OF THE FULL-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY OVER SIX VIDEOS ON BLOG.NEWZEALANDARTWORK.COM
Canvassing The Treaty copyright Tumanako Productions.
Written by artist Sofia Minson from NewZealandArtwork.com
New Zealand Maori portrait and landscape oil paintings
