Robin White was born in 1946 in Te Puku, New Zealand. She studied at the School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, and under the influential New Zealand artist Colin McCahon. In the early 1980s, White moved with her family to Kiribati, in the central Pacific, where she lived and worked until June 1999 before returning to New Zealand.

White has participated in numerous exhibitions in New Zealand and in Australia, including 'The First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' at the Queensland Art Gallery in 1993. White works in a variety of art forms, including painting, printmaking and mixed media. Although her work can often be identified stylistically with the 'western' art canon, White is of Maori descent, and her art is deeply informed by concerns regarding indigenous Pacific cultures. She has an understanding of issues related to the history of the Pacific region, its peoples and their traditions, and her work reflects these concerns both in subject matter and media.

New Angel I–III comprises 18 hand-woven pandanus mats created in collaboration with a group of weavers from the Teitoiningaina Catholic Women's Training Centre, Kiribati. White conceived the idea of the project and designed the images in watercolour. She then transferred each design onto a squared weaving pattern; the patterns were followed by the weavers to produce the pandanus mats. The images depicted on the mats are inspired by the packaging of imported products commonly found in the local stores: instant milk powder, white bread, tobacco twist, 'New Angel' tinned fish, matches and blue label 'Bushel's' tea.

The 18 mats are organised in three groups of six. In the first group the six imported objects are briefly outlined and incorporated into six local traditional weaving patterns. In the second group the imported objects have come forward in the pictorial space, which has become three-dimensional and is interrupted by the introduction of English writing. In the third group the imported objects and language are represented in full colour and dominate the traditional weaving patterns that have been marginalised at the upper and lower extremes of the mats.

New Angel I–III makes direct reference to the introduction of western culture in the Pacific islands and its impact on the indigenous cultures of the region. Weaving has been chosen as the means of expression for a number of reasons: it is one of the most popular Pacific art forms and a common thread among many Pacific cultures; Kiribati has a great tradition of pandanus weaving and local women are skilled in the art form; and weaving, as a system of holding together individual fibres, is an allegory for the social and cultural systems established on the islands before and after their colonisation, as well as a reference to systems of artistic practice and representation. The materials used are an intrinsic part of the meaning conveyed by the work. The pandanus fibre and earthy pigments are produced from natural local sources while the bright colours are imported commercial dyes.