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AT HOME WITH... Gina Matchitt

AS TOLD TO: JOA A A IS PHOTOS: JERICHO ROCK-ARCHER/STUFF

Gina Matchitt doesn’t have room to make her art at home in Wellington, but she always finds a way, including an upcoming residency in Mexico. Matchitt (Ngāti Ngāhere, Whakatōhea and Ngāti Rangitihi, Te Arawa) lives in Thorndon with her husband Greg Millar and teenage son.

GINA: We lived overseas for seven years, in Washington, DC, and in Rome. My husband, Greg, worked for the United Nations.

In DC, we had a row house, but we had one on the end, with a basement apartment and I had my studio in the attic there, which was quite big.

In Rome we had quite a big place, too. And before we went, I was teaching at Te Wānanga o Awanuiārangi in Whakatāne and living in Edgecumbe, where we had a big modernist house with a swimming pool.

Everywhere we’ve gone except this house, I’ve been able to have a separate studio.

Here in Thorndon, the house is probably about 100m² with two really small bedrooms. Our son, Frankie, 19, has the sleep-out – which could be my studio.

We’ve been here seven years. I’d never lived in Wellington before. I grew up in Rotorua, and I’d lived on and off in Auckland.

I really love it now. It was a bit of a shock, the weather and coming home to a much smaller city.

Rome was amazing for the art and the history, but at times frustrating. Even the Italians would say it’s difficult for them to live in Rome. Things don’t work as they should. Everybody wants everything paid in cash.

I really don’t have a lot of time for my art at the moment because I’m working full time for the Wellington City arts team as a project co-ordinator.

I was supposed to do a residency in Mexico when Covid first hit in 2020, and I’m hoping to go in February/March next year, so that will be a great chunk of time to just focus on my practice.

I’m going to focus on photography. I’ve done some woven photography before: My work usually deals with an element of Māori pattern. I take photographs, print them, cut and weave them together.

The other version that I’ve done is to take an image, print it twice, cut them in opposite directions and weave it back together. That’s probably my starting point for Mexico, in a new, exciting environment. I’m also hoping to make connections with Mexican indigenous artists.

I have a fascination with woven Māori pattern. My aunty was a weaver. My mother learned to weave but quite late in life. I’ve dabbled but I’m not committed enough to be a full-time weaver.

I re-interpret the weaving patterns with contemporary materials to put a different spin on it.

I was a jeweller. I’ll never say never again. I just wanted to experiment a bit more in terms of scale. When you’re working in jewellery, you’re limited to that small format, and I found that actually making jewellery day-to-day was quite hard on my body, my shoulders and stuff.

Greg has the more reliable income, but I’m trying to get into the paid space that’s still related to art, curatorial and arts advising.

It’s not that I give up my art. If you have a job in the arts and you have your practice, they both feed each other.

No matter what, I will always be a maker. I figured that out in recent years. Once you’re an artist, you can’t give it up.

Both of my children are studying fine arts, much to my husband’s … Oh, he’s happy. He was just hoping one of them would go down a different route.

My daughter Aroha, 21, is in the final year of a bachelor’s in Māori visual arts course and my son has just started in fine arts at Massey. They can’t escape it. They grew up surrounded by art, and me doing my art and going on residencies.

My art always has a message: It’s about mana Māori. I just make what I make, but I do highlight Māori korero or stories or points.

With my series, Merchandise, it was about how there have been colonising influences, such as religion, tobacco, alcohol and how global brands like Nike, McDonald’s are a form of ongoing colonisation.

Translating brands such as Starbucks into Māori was about re-imagining Māori in positions of economic power, flipping the idea that businesses were European-owned or controlled.

Contemporary Maori art is becoming more visible and valued and that’s good.

The Interview

en-nz

2022-08-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-07T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/283141432525681

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