PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: TODAY (Monday, July 17), at 3.00pm, Marischal Museum, Marischal College
The results of an art residency will be unveiled at Marischal Museum today (Monday, July 17) by the Deputy Chairman of the Maori Heritage Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Waaka Vercoe has travelled from New Zealand to Aberdeen to officially open the exhibition, entitled ‘Nga Taonga: A response to Maori treasures in Marischal Museum’, this afternoon.
The exhibition of works by Marischal Museum’s Artist-in-Residence, Rhondda Greig, will be displayed alongside unique Maori treasures from the University’s collection.
Rhondda said: “Being an artist-in-residence in Marischal Museum is an unusual but highly productive and stimulating time in my career. Artists generally work in isolation.”
“To have skilled and professional people from other disciplines as colleagues brings a new dimension to creative activities, in this case, inspired by the objects in the museum.”
Marischal Museum cares for one of the most important collections of Maori objects in Scotland. Known as ‘taonga’, these treasures reached Aberdeen through the activities of explorers and collectors in previous centuries. Today, they record these links and offer inspiration for new understandings.
Neil Curtis, Senior Curator, Marischal Museum, said: “Rhondda has brought new insights into the collections, particularly those of Maori taonga. Her detailed drawings and dazzling abstract paintings have created a very powerful and beautiful and thought-provoking exhibition.”
Rhondda Greig is an internationally renowned artist from Wairarapa, North Island, New Zealand. Rhondda has been working in the University’s Marischal Museum’s for the past year as the first Artist in Residence.
Since beginning her career as a professional artist, Rhondda has held solo exhibitions regularly in New Zealand and in Japan, where she has been an invited solo exhibitor in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kyoto. In 2000, she was commissioned by the Landmarks Trust of New Zealand to create a monument to New Zealand women. This took the form of a multi-media installation of oil painted canvas and etched glass, which is situated in St Paul’s Cathedral in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2001, she undertook a commission for the Wairarapa Cultural Trust to create a coloured glass-text installation for the entrance foyer in Aratoi, the new Wairarapa arts and history museum.
Nga Taonga: A response to Maori treasures in Marischal Museum will be on display in Marischal Museum until September 2006.
Marischal Museum is located in Marischal College in the centre of Aberdeen. Entry to the museum is free and it is open from Monday to Friday, from 10:00am to 5:00pm, and on Sundays from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. For further information, please call (01224) 274301 or email museum@abdn.ac.uk