In her work, Maree Sheehan (Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Clan Sheehan) challenges the colonial aesthetics of representations of Māori women in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century New Zealand painting. In her artistic research, the sound artist and composer investigates how the sonic might offer new ways to reconceptualize representations of mana wahine Māori (prestigious Māori women). Central to Sheehan’s practice is the genre of portraiture, yet her work transcends the visual boundaries of the genre. Grounded in the epistemological and metaphysical foundations of Kaupapa Māori, the sound installation Ōtairongo (2020) transforms the genre’s very representational conventions into aural perceptions. Through the use of binaural sound in a darkened space, Sheehan invites the audience to pause and listen to the sonic portraits of the wairua (soul/spirit) and maurí (life force) of three mana wahine Māori: Te Rita Papesch, Moana Maniapoto, and Ramon Te Wake. Audio portraits of joy, hope, and their lived lives are woven together with song and sound to evoke what is felt above, beyond, and within. What is afforded here is an immersive expression of the multidimensionality of cultural identity where kōrero (speech), waiata (song/chant), the marae (courtyard/ the open area in front of the meeting house), whanau (extended family/family group), and whenua (land) converge.

Work in the exhibition: Ōtairongo: The sound of identity: Interpreting the multidimensionality of wāhine Māori through audio portraiture (2020), 3-channel sound installation, each c.7'. Courtesy of the artist