Adorn yourself accordingly

Arawhetu Berdinner, Kōuma Mahara, 2026 (detail). Photo by Florence Hilyer-Brandt.

Arawhetu Berdinner, Kōuma Mahara, 2026 (detail). Photo by Florence Hilyer-Brandt.

now on
12 Sep – 24 Oct

Arawhetu Berdinner, Bailey Gardner, Te Māreikura Whakataka-Brightwell

Adorn yourself accordingly brings together the work of three emerging artists living in Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui, under the broad theme of Māori and Moana adornment. 

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Arawhetu Berdinner has an enduring interest in the artforms of her ancestors. Guided by ngā atua Māori and ancestral makers, Berdinner’s practice considers material culture as carriers of whakapapa, and the creator as a conduit for that exchange in real time. Bailey Gardner creates unique pieces of jewellery using found shells, metal, and hand woven chains. Gardner collects common shells on a small scale from a variety of beaches to lessen her impact on te taiao—a practice that honours Tangaroa in the wake of our climate crisis. Te Māreikura Whakataka-Brightwell questions dominant narratives of beauty while working with what he has coined ‘Big Fat Ugly Pearls.’ Driven by his Tahitian and Māori whakapapa, Whakataka-Brightwell uses the kinds of cultured pearls that the French Polynesian Government in Tahiti is trying to ban, actively resisting colonial impositions in his own mahi toi.

Each artist exhibiting in Adorn yourself accordingly works with natural and synthetic materials, exploring the tension between the two while contributing to exciting experiments in contemporary adornment.

 

Kua whakakāhuitia nei tokotoru ngā ringarehe e aranga ake nei ki te Ūpoko o te Ika a Māui i runga i te kaupapa whānui a whakarākei Moana-Māori.

Kua aro tōmau a Arawhetu Berdinner ki ngā taonga tāukiuki nā ōna tūpuna i hanga. Mā rātou mā, rātou ko ō rātou ātua Māori ōna rangahau ā-ringa e arahi. Ki tā Berdinner, hei kawenga whakapapa ngā taonga tuku iho, otirā, hei whitimamao te kaihanga mai tō rātou ao taketake o neherā ki te ao hurihuri o naianei. E ahu ana a Bailey Garder i ōna taonga whakarākei ahurei mai i ngā rawa pērā i ngā anga moana, ngā maitai me ētahi mekameka nō ōna ake ringa i rāranga. E kohikohi ana a Garder i ngā anga māori, engari he iti tōna kohinga mai ia takiwā onepū kia iti tōna tapuwae ki te taiao. He mātāpono o te kaitiakitanga i waenganui i tōna hononga ki a Tangaroa e hirahira ana i tēnei wā e pā mai te tairaru āhuarangi. Mā ōna hanganga nānā anō i tapa ko ‘Fat Ugly Pearls’, e wero atu ana a Te Māreikura Whakataka-Brightwell i ngā paearu ataahua e whakatairangatia whānuitia i ēnei rangi. Tāpiri atu ki ōna whakapapa Māori, e heke hoki ana tōna aho i Tāhiti. I tēnei wā tonu, ka ngana te kāwanatanga Wīwī i tāmi ai i ō rātou whenua ki te rāhui i ēnei tūmomo paera. Nā reira hei whakatumatuma ki ngā uarā o te hunga manatāmi ōna taonga whakarākei. 

E whakakōtahi ia o ēnei ringarehe i ngā rawa māori me ngā mātū kirihou hei tūtakitanga i ngā ao e kawea nei ia tūmomo rawa. Mā ēnei whakapiringa ka tāpiri atu ēnei ringatoi i ētahi taonga whakamīharo ki te pekanga toi o ngā taonga whakarākei. 

Nā Brooke Pou tēnei whakaaturanga i rauhī. 

 

Curated by Brooke Pou

Arawhetu Berdinner (Te Arawa, Ngati Pikiao, Ngati Whakaue) is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She has recently completed a Masters in Fine Arts through Massey University. Arawhetu’s multi-disciplinary practice spans adornment, installation, and painting, and is about whakapapa to materials, whakapapa of concepts and the whakapapa of making. Her working processes follow ancestral pathways of tikanga practices, to acknowledge and bring forth the mauri of the natural materials in the taonga-based entities she makes.

He uri a Arawhetū Berdinner i Te Arawa, Ngāti Pikiao, rātou ko Ngāti Whakaue e noho ana ki Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Ināia tata nei, kua whakatūtuki a Berdinner i tōna paetohu māhita i Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa. Mā ngā tukanga rau i roto i ngā mahi a te taonga whakarākei, te puninga toi, me te peita, ka tātai whakapapa hangahanga āna mahi. Ka whai tikanga āna mahi, kia tukuna te mauri o ngā rawa kia maea ai i roto i ngā taonga e hanga ana ia. 

Bailey Gardner is the artist behind seapunks.xx, a brand that imagines a future already subsumed by the deluge, populated by punks and scrappers. The shells at the heart of each artwork chart the designer’s perambulations across the motu. Every work forms under an exchange carried by instinct—responses to shape, colour, material, mistakes, experimentation, and of course, desire. They offer a recognition of and a reply to a future already washing up at our feet that we might still meet with imagination, adaptation, and style. seapunks.xx has exhibited at NYC Jewellery week 2025 and is showing at Slug pop-up. 

E tūhura ana i ngā āhua whanokē a Bailey Gardner kei raro o te ingoa tā a seapunks.xx. He pōhewatanga taua tapanga o te āhuatanga o ngā mōrehu i tētahi ao e heke mai nei, kua kāia kētia e tētahi patapataiāwhā. He kohinga ngā anga i roto i tō tēnei kaihoahoa taonga whakarākei nō te hōkai o āna tipiwhenua i Te Ika a Māui. Mā tōna puku te ahunga o ia taonga e takitaki ai, ahakoa mā ōna ringa e whakamaiangi. Hei mihi ia o ōna taonga ki tētahi āhua, tētahi tae, tētahi rawa ahurei, waihoki ki tētahi hapa, ki ōna whakamātautau, a otirā, ki te whitawhita o te kiko. He āhukahuka, he maiohā nōna ki ngā wā e hekeheke mai nei, i runga i te wawata ka tūtakihia e tātou i aua wā i runga i te manawa kai tūtae me te wairua kuneroa. 

Te Māreikura Whakataka-Brightwell is a Tahitian and Māori artist descended from a long line of artists, navigators and cultural innovators. His practice is grounded in whakapapa, ritual, memory and cultural transformation. Working across sculpture, adornment, performance, and installation, he draws on Indigenous materials, forms and knowledge systems to explore ideas of beauty, grief, identity, and belonging. His work brings ancestral references into contemporary contexts, creating objects and experiences that move between ceremony, taonga, and art. Central to his practice is a commitment to cultural integrity and carrying inherited knowledge forward in new forms.

E heke mai ana Te Māreikura Whakataka-Brightwell i tētahi aho e whāngaia rā ōna whenu i ngā ringatoi, i ngā kaiūrungi, me ngā tarāia āhuarea nō Aotearoa taketake a nō Tahiti hoki. Ko te ritenga, ko te mahara, ko te panonitanga ahurea mā te whakapapa te pūtake o āna mahi toi. Nā ngā āhua taketake, rawa taketake, me te mātauranga taketake ka maiangi mai he toi ahutoru, toi taonga whakarākei me ngā whakaaturanga mataora kia tuku āhua ki ēnei ariā a te ataahua, te matapōrehu, te tuakiri me te whakatangatawhenuatanga. E kāranga atu ki ngā tupuna ōna whakaritenga a ko ngā hua ko ngā ritenga, ko ngā taonga, me ngā toi hurihuri. Ka mau tonu a Brightwell ki ngā hononga tūturu ki ōna tūpuna me te whakarauora anō o ngā taonga tuku iho i roto i ngā āhuatanga hou.