Aratoi focus on flax, food and film

Two intricate exhibitions at Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History open in August and share the concept of ‘home’ through textiles, food and film.

Internationally-recognised artists Cat Auburn and Christine Borland join forces with the astonishing

Main Gallery exhibition: Approaching Home.

Aotearoa artist Cat Auburn is currently living in Scotland and will be exhibiting artwork in which she explored the collective centering of military heroism within an Aotearoa national origin story. Scottish artist, Christine Borland will be showing artwork engaging with the social and material histories of flax and linen production.

Approaching Home explores the multifaceted concept of home through the lens of shared material culture and heritage, through textiles and film.

Popular touring exhibition, Fortune by artist Bev Moon, is an knitted yum cha banquet exhibition in

honour of her Taishanese mother and grandmother, two of only 500 Chinese women and children

granted a two-year temporary entry permit to New Zealand during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-

1945.

Knitting is something Bev has done from the age of nine when her late mother, Yip Sue Yen (Sue

Eng) showed her how, and during the Auckland lockdown of 2021, Bev started knitting Fortune, a

yum cha banquet. 

Slowly the number of dishes grew into a feast, and Bev realised it was an homage of sorts not only to her mother, but her grandmother as well. 

For a full list of exhibitions and events at Aratoi, head to www.aratoi.org.nz

Caption: 

Bev Moon, Fortune (a knitted yum cha for my mother’s 90th birthday), 2021-22, mixed media. (Photo credit: Richard Ng)