After Ayesha Green
Tūpuna Portraits
22 February 2022
Nau mai, haere mai e te whānau
Over the past month Ayesha Green has been hard at work with Kāi Tahu whānui on the collaborative project Tūpuna Portraits. In a series of marae-based wānanga, whānau were invited to paint a portrait of a tūpuna, or ancestor, guided by Green’s distinctive style of portrait painting. As she says, ‘The power of painting someone, to sit with their image, to look at them, to draw them, and to paint them, is a labour of love.’Over the coming week, we are looking forward to welcoming these new portraits into Paemanu: Tauraka Toi – a landing place where they will hang alongside Green’s own work to create a space of manaaki and nohoaka within the exhibition. We extend our thanks to all those who have been willing to share their mahi and their tūpuna with our visitors.