BRETT GRAHAM (New Zealand, 1967) is an artist. He makes large-scale sculptures and installations that draw on indigenous history, politics and philosophy. He views his Maori ancestry as a Pasifika/Moana identity affiliated with a global network of non-Western peoples. He holds an arts degree from the University of Auckland (1988), to where he returned between 2001 and 2005 to pursue his doctoral studies in the same area, having concluded a master’s degree at the University of Hawaii in 1991. He took part in the biennials of Honolulu (2017), Sidney (2010) and Venice (2007). His individual exhibits include Monument, Two Room Gallery, Auckland (2018); Properties of Peace and Evil, Bartley and Company Art, Wellington, New Zealand (2017); and Brett Graham, Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia (2016).
The work MONUMENT TO THE PROPERTY OF PEACE AND MONUMENT TO THE PROPERTY OF EVIL (2017) relates to the spirituality of the Pai Marire faith, a syncretic movement between traditional Maori religion and the strand of Christianity that emerged in New Zealand in the late 19th century and played an important role in the resistance of native peoples to the European invaders. The two towers that make up the installation serve as reminders of the stone obelisks erected in Petane and Ōmarunui in 1916 by the veterans of the “one-day war.” They are clad in wood, reminiscent of the houses from the period. The monuments to peace and evil are purposefully similar, reflective of how dichotomies can often look the same depending on one’s perspective.
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