Lacy said the acquisition of Graham’s “extraordinary” and “nationally significant” sculpture aligned with the gallery’s mission to collect key works by leading Māori artists.
Wastelands was commissioned for the International Art Exhibition component of last year’s Venice Biennale. While New Zealand did not have a country-specific pavilion, eight Māori artists (including Graham and his father, Fred) were selected by the Biennale’s curator, Adriano Pedrosa, to show in the major group exhibition.
Auckland Art Gallery’s senior curator of global contemporary art, Natasha Conland, writing in a Biennale publication, said the storehouse on wheels implied “mobility, transience, and separation from homeland”.
The depiction of eels, instead of traditional carved patterns, referenced both a food source and reverence for the natural world.
“In 1858, as part of the colonial project, the New Zealand government passed the Waste Lands Act, which shifted the definition of large swamp lands – a rich resource for Māori – to ‘waste’,” Conland writes.
“The act claimed these vast swamps as unoccupiable land, redefining them as territories of wetland to be drained and turned towards agriculture. Graham’s presentation of this storehouse is a reminder that for Māori, these eel preserves were as valuable as goldmines.”
Wastelands is among 33 new works bought by the gallery this financial year, and its first direct purchase of an Aotearoa New Zealand Venice Biennale commission. It plans to display the work in its new home in early May.
Graham, known for his large-scale sculptures and installations, said he was “thrilled” the Auckland gallery had bought Wastelands.
“This work carries stories close to home so it is warming to know that it will remain in Aotearoa.”
Kim Knight is an award-winning arts and lifestyle journalist with the New Zealand Herald’s premium lifestyle team.
