Te Ao Maarama, SEASON Gallery 01.04.23–06.05.23

In Te Ao Mārama, Maia Kreisler (Ngāti Mutunga, Te Āti Awa) delves into Māori cosmologies of creation and becoming. Guided by the teachings of her mentor Wi Taepa, Kreisler draws upon the symbolic potential of the uku vessel—its hollow interior echoing Te Pō, the realm of darkness, while its outer form gestures toward Te Ao Mārama, the world of light and life. This duality becomes a metaphor for emergence and transformation.

Her palette of black, red, and white traces the sacred continuum from Te Korekore (the void of potential) through Te Whaiao (the threshold of becoming), arriving in the illuminated world. In Kreisler’s hands, this cosmogenic arc is not just theory—it’s embodied through touch, clay (uku), and fire (ahi), forming a deeply physical language of ancestral memory and material presence.

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