Aotearoa / Māori (2025)
artist's hair, yarn, cotton bedsheet
dimensions variable
L: Gulf of Abya Yala / Guna (2024 / 2025)
R: Aotearoa / Māori (2025)
artist's hair, yarn, cotton bedsheet
dimensions variable
Kunstverein Braunschweig 2025
Aotearoa / Māori (2025)
artist's hair, yarn, cotton bedsheet
(Detail)
Aotearoa / Māori (2025)
artist's hair, yarn, cotton bedsheet
(Detail)
Aotearoa / Māori (2025)
artist's hair, yarn, cotton bedsheet
(Reproduction)
The term Aotearoa (ao tea roa) from the Māori language means “island of the long white cloud.” Today, it is officially used in parallel with the English name for the double island that we have long known only as New Zealand. What Abya Yala / Guna (2024 / 2025) demands is thus already found in this work as a description of the status quo. In solidarity, I embroidered the Māori name with my hair on a light blue bedsheet. With its shape, color, and drape, the sheet evokes the water that surrounds these land areas and, as the Māori say, connects them. The material refers to an everyday sphere in which, however, the private and the political are connected on many levels. The hair embroidery on the textile evokes moments of disturbance, such as hair left behind on a hotel bed or lurking in the soup.