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Home Front 2015

Accession No.
2015.021.001-002
Date Created
2015
Gallery location
Not on public display
Department
Pacific Art
Dimensions A
Two walls: 404 x 2295cm (each)
Media Category
Installation
Medium
Aluminium, polyurethane paint
Credit Line
Gift of the artist and Michael Lett through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2015

At four metres high and 23 metres long, Home Front towers over the viewer and completely fills their field of vision. Comprised of units of colour, the work resembles toy blocks used by children to build walls and forts. The industrial aesthetic has an art historical precedence in the multicoloured sculptures of North American minimalist Donald Judd.

Artist Michael Parekowhai notes that Cuisenaire rods were an inspiration for this artwork. Cuisenaire rods were originally used in the 1920s as a mathematical teaching aid. They were widely deployed throughout the world in the 1960s and 70s; and New Zealand-based educators also successfully used the coloured wooden rods in the teaching of Te Reo Māori in the 1980s. By using Cuisenaire rods, Parekowhai deftly refers to the flow of ideas between cultures and the debates surrounding biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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© Michael Parekowhai

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ESSAY: Parekowhai’s Home Front

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