Robert Jahnke
Corten steel
Taruke is the Maori name for a crayfish pot. The form pays
tribute to the former customary rights of Maori to the
foreshore and seabed albeit in a highly stylized modernised
vocabulary of corten steel. The staggered arrangement of
Taruke, taruke, taruke large to small, in forced
perspective allows for the viewing of one taruke through
another in a simulated sight-line linking 'ki uta' to 'ki
tai' , foreshore to seabed as an indictment of state intervention
over customary title.
Born in 1951 Robert Jahnke (Te Whanau A Rakairoa o Ngati
Porou) trained at the Elam School of Fine Arts where he
graduated with an MFA (Ist Class honours) in 1978; he also holds a
MFA from the Californian Institute of the Arts and a Phd in Maori
Studies. Currently he is Professor and Head of Maori Studies at
Massey University, Palmerston North.
Originally trained in design and film, Jahnke has emerged as a
sculptor who makes use of diverse range of media and resources
including found objects as well as text in both Maori and
English. He belongs to a generation which has placed
bicultural issues and protest at the centre of its art and often
employs words with double meanings to reinforce his message, an
example being his Conversation works of 1994. In his practice
Jahnke points to the grievances of Maori over the loss of land and
natural resources.
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