Executed in 2003, Michael Parekowhai’s installation piece Kapa Haka was expressly commissioned for the exhibition Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific (2004) that was held at the Asia Society Museum in New York. The 15 identical, life-sized, glossy fibreglass figures, posed as security guards, were originally positioned outside the museum as though guarding the precious treasures within. Measuring around six feet tall and solid in stature, each of the guards stands with legs apart and arms staunchly crossed, collectively packing a powerful punch.
In a similar manner to his earlier work Poorman, Beggarman, Thief from 1999, which was modelled on Parekowhai’s father and can be seen on pages 28-29 of the current catalogue, the security guard that stars repeatedly in Kapa Haka is modelled on the artist’s brother, Paratene, who is indeed a security guard. The use of repetition in Kapa Haka draws attention to issues of identity since Parekowhai’s mannequins are afforded scant individuality. Apart from their identifying colour tags, in this instance puhina or grey, they are lumped together in an undifferentiated mass: Parekowhai thus makes a poignant comment on New Zealand race relations and the tendency for Maori to be viewed as a non-specific entity. The only differentiating feature among the figures of Kapa Haka is the use of those ID tags that identify each guard as a different colour in te reo Maori. By crafting a crowd out of identical sameness but naming each figure a different colour, Parekowhai invites the spectator to imagine the full spectrum of difference and individuality that quietly thrives under the pretence of an apparently indistinguishable exterior and, in the process, to register the difference between what people assume about Maori en masse and what Parekowhai knows about his brother as an individual person.
The title of the work Kapa Haka refers to a specific and time-honoured tradition of Maori performance which involves both song and dance and works as a medium through which their unique cultural identity is expressed. In the context of Parekowhai’s work, this custom is ironically and playfully appropriated in a frozen performance piece. In New Zealand, the fibreglass Kapa Haka figures were initially exhibited at Michael Lett on Karangahape Road, Auckland, where five of them stood motionlessly inside the front window and unabashedly guarded the empty gallery space. As art objects, the figures are instantly alluring with their lustrous, glossy finish and their curious sameness, which, in the same manner as identical twins, cannot fail to pique the viewer’s curiosity and insist on seriously close consideration.
Parekowhai’s infinitely layered pieces that comprise Kapa Haka are successful in their multiplicity of meaning. Their heavy physical presence demands that the spectator reconsider inherited assumptions concerning racial stereotyping while their brusque pose, blank expression and flawless polish allow them to be appreciated as aesthetic objects. JEMMA FIELD