Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view. Photograph: Justin Spiers
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view. Photograph: Justin Spiers
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view. Photograph: Justin Spiers
Sandy Wakefield Tāwhirimātea 2019. Film still. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view. Photograph: Justin Spiers
Sandy Wakefield
Tāwhirimātea
18 July 2022 - 28 August 2022
A Rear Window Project
In Tāwhirimātea (2019), a short film from Sandy Wakefield, Tāwhirimātea rages his way through a surreal montage of educational films, B-grade sci-fi, pro-nuclear propaganda, television advertisements and a pulsing, immersive soundtrack. The work’s source material comes from the Prelinger Archives, a collection of moving image ephemera based in the United States.
Wakefield has worked for decades in sound departments for feature films and television, and she says: “I’m talking about how western science has defined our universe, and how we (Māori/Pacific peoples) are perceived on screen. I was trying to find a way to re-appropriate someone else's imagery to reflect us.”
Tāwhirimātea makes up half of a diptych comprising two films. The second film, Nakunaku (2019), can be viewed in part on Wakefield’s website: www.rurumedia.com
Sandy Wakefield (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tahu) is a film and television sound technician, kaupapa Māori researcher, writer and director based in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. Her films re-contextualise and transform Māori ideals and principles into powerful narratives through the redefinition of avant-garde art and pop-art culture.