Knowledge exchange: Reviving tapa through transnationalism
Nikau Hindin during the creation of toi aute for the 35th Bienal de São Paulo / Photograph: Holly Burgess / Courtesy: ArtZone (NZ) / View full image
In 2020, as an audience gathered to hear Cora-Allan speak, the artist stood, dressed herself in a blue velvet cloak, took up a brush licked with black paint, and proceeded to paint over her hiapo Our Last Supper with You Revised 2020, hanging on the wall. The effect of the spectacle was immediate. Stunned onlookers reacted not only to the performed ‘destruction’ of a work, but the perceived loss of endangered imagery.
Ioana Gordon-Smith explores the revival and contemporary practice of tapa-making on the Asia Pacific Art Papers: Contemporary Contexts, Practices, Ideas website. Read the full essay.