Peter Robinson

Kā Kaihōpara is a journey of discovery – exploring concepts, materials, and ways of making and seeing. Taking the material language of modern building and construction, Peter Robinson (Kāi Tahu) creates a speculative and open-ended installation that navigates audiences through ideas that have been occupying him over a recent period of research. 

Working with aluminium, plastic, paper, pen and ink, Robinson activates a series of overlapping discussions about art, history, migration, and storytelling.  His drawings talk to one another across the gallery, and across the span of his practice. They introduce new characters into Robinson’s existing library of marks and forms, and are joined in turn by the works of friends and whānau to create an ever-expanding conversation. Sculptures inhabit the centre – structures, vehicles, shelters, and travellers that both shore up and disrupt ways of considering migration, occupation and encounter. Offcuts are Robinson’s ahi kā, continuing to stoke the fires of a continuous history of art making.

Peter Robinson (Kāi Tahu) studied sculpture at Ilam School of Fine Arts from 1985-89, and is presently an Associate Professor Fine Arts and Associate Dean Māori of the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries, Te Waka Tūhura Elam School of Fine Arts and Design, University of Auckland. From the late 1980s to the present, his practice has traversed a landscape of ideas and modes; stirring up discussion, unsettling the status-quo, and contributing to a robust and internationally-engaged discourse around contemporary art from Aotearoa. Robinson spent time living and working in Ōtepoti Dunedin as the Aotearoa New Zealand Visiting Artist for 2023. 

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He haereka whakahura a Kā Kaihōpara – e whakatōmenetia ana kā ariā, kā papaka me kā ara waihaka, kā ara titiro. Nā te reo ake o te haka whare, o te whakatūtū whare o ēnei raki Peter Robinson (Kāi Tahu) i waihaka ai he whakaaturaka whakapae, he whakaaturaka tiria te whakaaro e whakateaea ana te huka mātakitaki ki kā mahara ōhona e noho ana ki a ia i tērā wāhaka rakahau i kā rā tata nei ko hori.

Mā te mahi ki te konumohe, te kirihou, te pepa, te pene, me te waituhi ka whakahiko i te tereka kōrerorero e tāpiki ana e hākai ki te toi, ki te tāhuhu kōrero, ki te hekeka, ā, ki te kōrero pūrākau anō hoki. Ka whakawhitiwhiti kōrero āhana tuhika ki roto i te ahurewa, ā, kai te roaka hoki o āhana mahi toi. Ka whakatakina he kiripuaki hou ki te pū o ā Robinson tohu, o āhana āhuataka, ā, ko hono hoki i tōhona wā ki te mahi o ōhona hoa, o ōhona whānau kia wātea ai te tipu me te rea o te paepae kōrero. Ka noho āhuru nei kā whakairo ki te pūtahi – he akaka, he waka, he wharau me he takata pōkai whenua ka whakatāmorehia, ā, ka whakararuhia hoki kā huatau o te hekeka, o te nohoka whenua me te tūtakihaka takata. Ko kā pororere, ko te ahi kā ki a Robinson, e toutou tou ana kā ahi o te mahika toutaka o te mahi toi.

I kuraina a Peter Robinson (Kāi Tahu) ki te Kura Toi Ātaka o Ilam mai i te tau 1985 ki te tau 1989, ā, ka noho ia hai Ahoraki Tūhono o te Toi Ātaka, hai Manukura Tūhono Māori hoki ki Te Waka Tūhura te Kura Toi Ātaka o Elam ki Waipapa Taumata Rau. Mai i te whiore o te tekau-tau 80 ā mohoa noa nei, ko pōkaia e tāhana mahi he horanuku o te whakaaro, o kā tau tānui; e tiritiri nei i te matapakika, e whakararu ana i tō nāianei tūāhua, ā, ka kōparepare hoki ki te kōrero tōtōpū, aka ā-ao mō te toi o nāianei nō Aotearoa. I noho, ā, i mahi hoki a Robinson ki Ōtepoti hai rikatoi noho o Aotearoa i te tau 2023. He hōtaka ko tokona e Toi Aotearoa me te Kura Toi o Ōtepoti.

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Kā Kaihōpara - contributing artists

Ainara Tovar Garcia Corrochano

Alex Lambert

Alex Jung

Aline Yamaura

Ambrose O’Meagher

Amanda Wright

Anthony Lloyd

Ani O’Neill (Cook Islands, Ngati Makea, Ngati Te Tika)

Angela Feng

Antony Deaker (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe)

Arleya Miller

Ashleigh Taupaki (Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Rangitihi)

Ashleigh Nicholls

Ava Seymour

Belinda Mason

Blair Lunday

Brianna Parkinson

Callum Moir

Carolyn Patman

Claire Johnson

Chanel Duff (South Africa)

Claude Brandt

Dani Nash

Daniel Croft

Ella Ashford-Beck

Ellie Moore

Elsa Brandt

Emma Mullin (Te Ātiawa)

Esmond Paterson

Fang Yuan

Gabriel Clifton

Haochen Zhang

Harrison Wu

Iona Stewart

Iraia McKree (Ngapuhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāi Tāmanuhiri)

Isabella Gillanders

Isaiah Okeroa (Ngāti Ruauni, Taranaki)

Izy Stefan

James Cousins

Jarrett Earnest

Jessica Wilcken

Jiayi Qu

Jocelyn Liu

Judy Millar

Jude Stevens

Kyra Coupland

Laura Gonzalez

Latamai Katoa

Lisa Crowley

Lonnie Hutchinson (Tangitu, Ngati kuri ki Ngai Tahu, Tua Tagaloa Potasi Faleilili, Tonga, Hawaii, England, Ireland, Scotland, Portugal)

Luc Morley-Stephenson

Lulu Marshall

Madeleine Bremner

Madi Baas

Madison Mckillop

Madison Kelly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe)

Matthew Pryde

Mya Zhen

Nathan McKay

Nathan Pōhio (Waitaha, Kāti Mamoe, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Tau Iwi)

Nicole Mulligan

Nick Austin

Ngahuia Harrison (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pukenga)

Oliver Williams

Paris Taylor

Peter Vendt

Phia Trembath

Poata Alvie McKree (Ngapuhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa)

Sam Bishop

Sarah-Kate Moon

Saskia Leek

Scott Eady

Selina Zhu

Simon Hong

Simon Kaan

Skye Lee

Tong Shan Liu (Tsingtao, China)

Totty Bowman (Nga Puhi)

Ty-Rae Cherry

Vivian Hou

Yan Tung Jasmine Cheung

Yuhao Liu

Yana Sanvictores

Zara Burt

Kā mihi nui ki a Paemanu: Ngāi Tahu Contemporary Visual Arts, our thanks to the artists of Paemanu.

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A Dunedin Public Art Gallery Visiting Artist Programme, supported by Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa. Project Partner, Dunedin School of Art.