He tuna ora, he wai ora

'He tuna ora, he wai ora' considers how human and nonhuman organisms and ecosystems co-exist and are entangled in a greater network of life forms, like a series of worms wriggling through the soil nourishing the plants in collaboration with the sun and rain.

We’d like to warmly invite you to the opening event of 'He tuna ora, he wai ora', an exhibition by Taarn Scott and Hana Pera Aoake.

He tuna ora, he wai ora
Opening on Thursday 19 June, 5.30pm
Exhibition dates: 20 June - 3 August

'He tuna ora, he wai ora' considers how human and nonhuman organisms and ecosystems co-exist and are entangled in a greater network of life forms.

In 2021, as they sat on the banks of the Ōtākaro awa and fed tuna, multidisciplinary artists Taarn Scott and Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Poutini Kāi Tahu), became interested in the shifting geographic histories of the Ōtākaro awa, and the ability of tuna to move through fresh and salt waters. Both artists are drawn to the adaptability (and mystery) of the life cycle of Tuna (eels), as a way of understanding tuna's connection to Te Taiao, and, in turn, their own entanglement to the world.

Join us on Thursday 19 June at 5.30pm for a mihi whakatau to celebrate the artists and their new exhibition. On Friday 20 June at 3pm, we will also host a panel discussion between the artists, Tia Barrett and guests. We invite you to attend both events.

Taarn Scott and Hana Pera Aoake (Ngāti Hinerangi, Ngāti Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Poutini Kāi Tahu) are two friends who make art together. Their collaboration is centred around playing and sharing ideas and research interests, which ranges from industrial histories, gardening, settler colonialism, “deep” time, place making, animals and plants and the waterways that sustain all life. Materially their work thinks through these threads of history and ideas, by utilising ceramics, textiles, film, sound, text, jewellery, writing, drawing, and various forms of sculpture such as steel and wax. 


Recent exhibitions together include, Folded Memory, curated by Susan Ballard and Sophie Thorn, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington (2023-24); Ngā hau o Tāwhirimātea with Riki Gooch, Enjoy Contemporary, New Zealand (2023); Invasive Weeds or I wish I could give you the world but I was only given mud, rot and the bones of a half-eaten fish with Wesley John Fourie, The Physics Room, Ōtautahi, Aotearoa (2022)  and The Future of Dirt with Wesley John Fourie, RM gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (2022).