Ta¯ me Iti and the art of

Journalists – unless they’ve spent years covering a specialist area of reportage – can generally talk for a minute or so on almost any subject, but no more. This is a joke I often use to excuse my lack of in-depth knowledge on various subjects (Sailing! Pasture management! Global economic theory!).

I do wish I knew more about art. To borrow the adage, I know what moves me, but often I don’t know why. I know the art of Ta¯ me Iti moves me deeply, and I’m not alone there; his naming as an NZ Arts Foundation laureate is testament to that. The connection of Iti’s art to the experience of Ma¯ ori is inescapable, which is why I found the responses to his correction of a painting in a Wellington hotel this week fascinating.

For those who haven’t seen it, the video of Iti crossing out his mis-spelled name on a Dean Proudfoot painting at the QT Hotel is worth a watch. Wearing a T-shirt with the words ‘‘I will speak Ma¯ ori’’ he carefully crosses out the name ‘‘Tama’’, and paints Ta¯ me above.

In the video, Iti explains his name is not difficult to get right. Captioned ‘‘Every week is Ma¯ ori language week’’ and set to a Dr Dre/Snoop Dog track, the video is an artwork itself.

Proudfoot’s response was an exemplar of crisis management; a full apology, and an endorsement of Iti’s actions. It shut down questions like, why did he not check the name of the person whose image and actions he was painting? The piece is literally about Ta¯ me – it is Ta¯ me. It borrows his activism for its content – part of a series, Proudfoot says, that celebrates Aotearoa’s unique characters.

Nevertheless, he says the correction has elevated the piece, which of course it has, and it’s now quite famous because of that.

The painting’s owner’s response was less enthusiastic. Chris Parkin, an art collector and