‘Go-Go Boys’ is an exhibition of paintings by Arapeta Hakura an Irāwhiti (Transgender Māori) artist, curator, and academic based in, Tāmaki Makaurau, and Waihi Beach in Aotearoa, New Zealand. They are of Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu, Te Patu Koraha, Tainui, Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Marutūāhu, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngai Te Rangi, Ngai Tohianga, Ngāti Whakamarurangi, Ngāti Tuirirangi, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Te Wehi, Ngāti Whangaparāoa, Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Motemote, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Porou, Scottish, and Croatian descent.

Arapeta is a weaver of stories with particular focus on Irāwhiti transgender Māori lived experiences, using the poetics of adornment, objects, performance, sound art, photography, and cinema. Drawing upon various traditional and contemporary art forms passed down through their whakapapa, their practice challenges binaries of western and precolonial Māori gendered making as well as binaries of material practices. Through their PhD scholarship ‘Whare Wawata: Dream Walking through takatāpui storytelling and sovereignty in transdisciplinary contemporary art,’ they ground their practice in pioneering indigenous transgender academia and theory.

This is an R16 event. 

Artist Talk: Arapeta will be in the gallery all day on February 14th. At 2pm they will be diving deep into their PhD research on establishing Irāwhiti in the contemporary art context through liberation of lived stories across trans-disciplinary practice. Please come join us.