The Gallery recently acquired two striking textiles — Orchid 2020, commissioned with funds from the Oceania Women’s Fund, and Chalice 2019, purchased with funds from the bequest of Jennifer Taylor through the QAGOMA Foundation — that evoke an infinitely connected past, present and future, writes Ruth McDougall.

Tungane Broadbent is a senior Cook Island Māori artist who has been creating bold quilts, known as tivaevae, for over 50 years. Tivaevae are large quilted textiles decorated with patterns worked in vibrant contrasting colours. These textiles combine the sewing skills introduced by early Christian missionaries along with design and layering methods that are a feature of Cook Island barkcloth and weaving traditions. As with the creation of barkcloth and woven mats, tivaevae are created from multiple layers.

Celebrated for the finesse of her cutting and the quality of her appliqué work, Broadbent has created tivaevae for a range of contexts, including ‘The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ in 2006. The Gallery recently acquired the eye-popping tivaevae ta’orei titled Chalice from Broadbent, with funds from the bequest of Jennifer Taylor through the QAGOMA Foundation, as well as commissioning a tivaevae manu through the Oceania Women’s Fund.

Tivaevae manu is the most ubiquitous of the tivaevae styles: a stylised cut-out design is placed on a backing of contrasting colour and then the layers are carefully appliquéd together. Immense skill is required in the cutting process for these works to capture the fine details within the design and to ensure that the overall pattern remains symmetrical. Plants and flowers are the most common subjects, reflecting their immense importance and visibility in daily life in the Cook Islands. It is common to see Cook Islanders in their gardens, making the most of the cooler morning hours to weed, prune and tend a range of flowering shrubs and decorative plants. To see a home without a garden — immaculately cared for and creatively arranged to offset the riotous, contrasting colours of the tropical plants — is rare. Plantings exist in what seem to be spontaneous clusters, but these are actually arranged according to the use of the flower or leaf. Boundaries are reinforced using plants with protective properties, while scented plants line paths so that their fragrance will carry through dwellings. Medicinal plants are always nearby. The cultural importance of plants — their colour and scents, as well as medicinal and spiritual properties — is evident in the role that they play within ceremony, in which they adorn bodies, architectural structures, sacred effigies and the platforms for ceremonial feasting.

Quilted textiles adorned with plant motifs contribute to a range of important ceremonies. They are gifted, exchanged and displayed to articulate connections between kin and to mark significant rites of passage such as birth, coming of age (boys’ hair-cutting), weddings and death. Rarely are the works used to cover beds or other domestic furniture, rather, they are kept in chests and brought out or gifted to mark special occasions.

Orchid 2020, the tivaevae manu Broadbent has created for QAGOMA, has been worked with a radiating design of clustered white orchid flowers that fan out from a central cross of leaf stems, set against a deep red ground. The orchid motif unfolds symmetrically along the central axis like a bird with outstretched wings; manu means ‘bird’. Broadbent’s tivaevae follows the tradition that requires the cutting and stitching to appear seamless, without ending or beginning. The linear arrangement of the cut-out manu evokes the trajectory of possible worlds in which specific paths connect past, present and future infinitely. The orchid motif triggers deep bodily memories, evoking a sense of place, with the fabric and stitches reimagining the Cook Islands lifestyle and customs.

Ruth McDougall is Curator, Pacific Art.