Untitled
Peter Robinson, Artist
About the Work
One
of
the
artist's
Percentage
paintings
of
the
mid
90s,
it
refers
to
his
percentage
of
Māori
(Ngai
Tahu)
blood.
Robert Leonard has written that Robinson's Percentage paintings "stake his claim to a Māori legacy and yet simultaneously seem to trivialize it, as if to question how much of a Māori he is or whether he's just jumping on a bandwagon.... The Percentage Paintings contribute to the ‘appropriation debate’ in which pakeha artists such as Walters and McCahon have been alternatively vilified and celebrated for their use of Maori imagery. Some understand their borrowings as homage, some condemn them as theft. Arguing that pakeha should not use these images both because they are ignorant of their meaning and because they are not related to them through whakapapa (genealogy), the prosecution conflates race and culture. The Percentage Paintings question the simplicity of the argument while siding with neither prosecution nor defense. They acknowledge that today’s Maori are inevitably partial, of mixed blood, whakapapa tying Maori and pakeha together as much as distinguishing them. They also present Maori and pakeha cultures as not pure, not distinct. Robinson gets his ‘Maori’ forms via Walters and McCahon as much as from indigenous tradition. Even the Ratana references are compelling in their impurity, their inventive deviation from tradition.
But the Percentage Paintings do much more. They challenge the prevailing notion of ‘authenticity’ in contemporary Maori art. Maori culture is typically presented as distinct, noble, sincere (no irony), spiritual, ecologically sound—a living tradition conflating the authentic with the well-appointed. While appearing PC, this misty-eyed essentialism masks economic and cultural disenfranchisement. It runs the risk of mocking and enhancing the sense of emptiness and displacement that many Maori feel, as if they are not real Maori because they do not walk the walk and talk the talk. The extent to which this identity mythology is less traditional than a construction of the present that simply refers to tradition, is seldom confronted."
Robert Leonard, '3.125% Pure: Peter Robinson Plays the Numbers Game' Art and Text, no.50, 1995. Available online http://robertleonard.org/3-125-pure-peter-robinson-plays-the-numbers-game/
Robert Leonard has written that Robinson's Percentage paintings "stake his claim to a Māori legacy and yet simultaneously seem to trivialize it, as if to question how much of a Māori he is or whether he's just jumping on a bandwagon.... The Percentage Paintings contribute to the ‘appropriation debate’ in which pakeha artists such as Walters and McCahon have been alternatively vilified and celebrated for their use of Maori imagery. Some understand their borrowings as homage, some condemn them as theft. Arguing that pakeha should not use these images both because they are ignorant of their meaning and because they are not related to them through whakapapa (genealogy), the prosecution conflates race and culture. The Percentage Paintings question the simplicity of the argument while siding with neither prosecution nor defense. They acknowledge that today’s Maori are inevitably partial, of mixed blood, whakapapa tying Maori and pakeha together as much as distinguishing them. They also present Maori and pakeha cultures as not pure, not distinct. Robinson gets his ‘Maori’ forms via Walters and McCahon as much as from indigenous tradition. Even the Ratana references are compelling in their impurity, their inventive deviation from tradition.
But the Percentage Paintings do much more. They challenge the prevailing notion of ‘authenticity’ in contemporary Maori art. Maori culture is typically presented as distinct, noble, sincere (no irony), spiritual, ecologically sound—a living tradition conflating the authentic with the well-appointed. While appearing PC, this misty-eyed essentialism masks economic and cultural disenfranchisement. It runs the risk of mocking and enhancing the sense of emptiness and displacement that many Maori feel, as if they are not real Maori because they do not walk the walk and talk the talk. The extent to which this identity mythology is less traditional than a construction of the present that simply refers to tradition, is seldom confronted."
Robert Leonard, '3.125% Pure: Peter Robinson Plays the Numbers Game' Art and Text, no.50, 1995. Available online http://robertleonard.org/3-125-pure-peter-robinson-plays-the-numbers-game/
Measurements
Image 750 x 1150 mm
Frame 850 x 1246 mm
Frame 850 x 1246 mm
Media
acrylic, sand and bitumen on paper
Description
Image containing numbers and percentages with an aeroplane form across the top of the numbers and a small car below them. The numbers are written in black, red and pale brown on a white background. The paint texture is extremely thick and lumpy.
Credit Line
Collection of the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui. Purchased, 1997.
Collection Type
Permanent collection
Acquisition Date
17 Sep 1997
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Accession Number:
1997/27/1