Choice! (exhibition)
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In 1990 New Zealand marked the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. On 1 December of that year, as part of this anniversary, the National Art Gallery (now Te Papa Tongarewa) presented a large exhibition of contemporary Māori art Kohia Ko Taikaka Anake: Artists Construct New Directions in association with Ngā Puna Waihanga. Apirana Taylor said of the artists in the exhibition, ‘Their source is a traditional Māori culture and they've brought these values with them into the modern world of contemporary art.’[2] Four months prior, on 25 July, Artspace in Auckland launched the exhibition "Choice!" with a distinct approach to contemporary Māori art. Curator George Hubbard's argument questioned both Pākehā and Māori views on just what constituted Māori art.[3]
Exhibition
As stated in the exhibition hand-out sheet, Choice! was intended ‘To challenge viewers’ perceptions of what Māori art is or can be, and its place within New Zealand art as indigenous art ... who decides what Māori art is? Māori – it's a Māori CHOICE!’[4] Or, as historian Peter Brunt has put it, ‘Choice! was a critique of biculturalism...Choice! wanted to de-centre Māori art’ and in turn subvert biculturalism's simplistic view of Māori art.[5] Art curator and writer Robert Leonard described the exhibition as, ‘game-changing’.[1]
Curator
George Hubbard was born in 1961 and educated in Wellington. An interest in photography led him to collecting works by contemporary New Zealand photographers, and in 1985 he started working at the Wellington Arts Centre under the management of contemporary Māori artist Darcy Nicholas.[4]
Nicholas believed in ‘encouraging contemporary Māori art’ claiming that there was ‘too much emphasis on traditional Māori art forms.’[6] Nicholas also allowed Hubbard to open his first gallery space by renaming the Arts Centre Hubbard's Cupboard.’ In 1989 Hubbard moved to Auckland and worked on sound tracks for artists including Lisa Reihana and et al.[4]