I Carry Your Love on My Back
15 February—22 March
I Carry Your Love on My Back is an exhibition that explores care between relatives, and personal signifiers of home, protection, and wellbeing.
It comes out of several months of deep exchange between Melanie Tangaere Baldwin (Ngāti Porou) and Bui Duy Thanh Mai (Vietnam), who have been working to understand each other and their cultures. They have been introducing themselves by explaining the ways they experience and understand familial love.
I Carry Your Love on My Back is a mihi to Melanie and Mai’s families and the work that goes into keeping each other well. These pieces consider the ways that bodies are marked and transformed by care; they are tangible expressions of the complex love that circulates within families.
Featured image: ‘Hinetītama’ by Melanie Tangaere Baldwin
Opening Event
Saturday 15 February
10am-12pm
This informal, talk-based event will open with the serving of brewed remedies, followed a conversation between visiting artists Mai, Melanie and curator Jordan Davey-Emms (Pākehā), focusing on the artworks and the challenges and joys of presenting work about family. This will be a relaxed discussion, with opportunities for attendees (and the artists’ family members in attendance) to contribute their own perspectives. The event will end with shared food at the gallery.
