Robert Jahnke
Rauwai
2006
stainless steel
Robert (Bob) Jahnke (Te Whanau a Rakairo, Ngati Porou) has occupied a prominent place in the arts in Aotearoa/New Zealand for the past three decades. His was the vision to introduce the Maori Visual Arts Programme at Massey University, Palmerston North, and he has co-ordinated the department since its inception in 1991. He is Head of School and Professor of Maori Studies at the University of Massey’s Te Putahi-a-Toi (School of Maori Studies). His influence, particularly through this programme, is a major force in contemporary New Zealand art.
Internationally recognized as one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary Maori artists, Jahnke characteristically makes strong and outspoken comment on the relationship between tangata whenua and the European colonisers of Aotearoa/New Zealand. His is art with a political message. Of Samoan/German/Maori/Irish ancestry, he has a multi cultural vantage point. Essentially Bob Jahnke is an advocate for bi-culturalism but his position is singular. It was Jahnke who transposed the well-known Hotere statement into ‘I am Maori and it is coincidental that I am an artist’. Jahnke’s art raises issues of injustices done to Maori.
The prominence given to political content in Jahnke’s work has always been paralleled by an exploration of material and techniques. Long practised in working with metal, Bob Jahnke has twisted and turned the material in Rauwai, exploring the limits of its capabilities. Presenting the work in water brings with it an additional set of issues to be resolved.
The polished stainless steel Rauwai is constructed to reflect the surrounding environment - sky, land and water. At Brick Bay the work ‘floats’ on the surface of the lake. It could just as easily be trailed and entangled in the bush canopy. It could hang suspended from a branch, could have fallen among the undergrowth or have blown onto the lawn. Bob Jahnke’s Rauwai is a work that can be show cased in a variety of environments.
Dr. Robin Woodward
