Cassette 10: Karikari Contemporary Gallery (1986)

**'The Life and Works of Roimata Mangakāhia'** at the Karikari Contemporary, Aotearoa. The entire audio guide is narrated by Hester Wells, curator and director.

> *"This exhibit will address the inspiration the two artists took from each others' works. Atieno was Mangakāhia's passion, her every work or gesture was received by Mangakāhia as either a favor or a threat. Perhaps they were. "*
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Hester introduces the exhibit as an overview of Roimata's life through her work, from her early landscapes and portraits to her later more surreal and abstract works, which often focused on smaller-scaled objects. She mentions her relationship to Claudia Atieno, and says the exhibit will also look at the inspiration they took from one another. She contrasts the two's approach in theme, as Claudia would express broad political views while Roimata focused on the human condition on a near-individual level. Hester finishes her introduction by saying she hopes the exhibit helps Roimata's work get the recognition she believes it deserves.

## Early Sketches (1953-1958)

### Rowboat

Believed to be the earliest work of Roimata's in the exhibit, this piece shows a charcoal sketch of a rowboat at the end of a long dock. The boat is unmoored, merely floating near the dock, and has a bag or satchel tucked inside it. The lines of the water fade out as they recede into the horizon, making the ocean seem vast. Hester estimated that Roimata was sixteen years old when she drew the piece, and speculates that this piece drew inspiration from stories she would have heard growing up, of refugees during the Reckoning.

### Damselfly

Also charcoal, Hester notes that while damselflies appeared frequently in Roimata's sketches, she doesn't know of a full painting where one was included. They were also common subjects in Claudia's work, which Hester suggests is connected.

### Portrait of young woman

This pencil drawing of a woman was done when Roimata was a teenager. Hester does not know her identity, and notes the way she is drawn which strongly suggests Roimata found her attractive, and wanted the viewer to find her beautiful too. Hester wonders what became of their relationship, and if it matters.

## Providence (1964)

Hester says that Roimata must have visited the North American port city at some point in her life, though there was no record of such a trip other than the painting itself - the date is purely speculatory on Hester's part. Roimata travelled a lot in her early 20s, as art began to thrive in the New Society (known as the Modern Society Era as an artistic period), and she aimed to write about them and learn from them.

The painting is devoid of both people and boats, only showing blue dock cranes and empty shipping containers. Hester has never visited the city, though she mentions that she has lived within a few hundred miles of it. Her work in North America was neither safe nor enjoyable, but she is glad she did it, and even gladder to be home.

## Cornwall Cliffs (1972)

Hester briefly recaps Roimata and Claudia's acquaintence and Claudia's disappearance to contextualise this painting. Roimata made several paintings of the cliffs where she loved to dive, and some scholars have mentioned that she and Claudia would dive together on summer afternoons, but Hester doubted that Claudia ever did join her, based on Roimata's own accounts.

Hester mentions the audio guides that Roimata recorded for various museums over the final decade of her life. Two of the museums Hester contacted said they never distributed the recordings because they were not up to museum standards, which Hester agreed with upon listening, as Roimata's emotions and personal opinions clouded her insight into Claudia's work.

Hester compares the scope of *Cornwall Cliffs* with Pieter Bruegel's *The Fall of Icarus*, in which the working people of Crete carry on with their day without noticing poor Icarus downing in the mid-ground. In *Cornwall Cliffs*, there are no people present, only sheep on the far shore, but there is a white splash of water in the sea below. It could either be a wave smacking against a rock, or the end of a dive.

## Fingers Together, 1973

After Claudia's disappearance in 1972, Roimata's paintings began to move into surrealism. In *Fingers Together*, bright tendrils of oil paint bleed down the canvas vertically, fading into twisted points. There are nine lines of colour, so if they are meant to represent fingers, there is one missing.

## The Bodies, 1979

In this painting there are two humanoid figures, the larger holding the smaller. Hester interprets the stance as an adult hiding and sheltering a small child from view. The child figure has almost no facial features, while the adult has two wide eyes inside the "cacophonous cloud of reds and browns" she (Hester's choice of pronoun) has for a head.

## Self-Portrait (1970)

This self-portrait shows Roimata in the guest room of the Cornwall house. Hester points out the figure visible outside the window, standing on the cliff. She speculates that it is meant to be Claudia, although that seems strange given that she did not dive, and then prompts the viewer to study Roimata's face and consider whether she knows something you do not. Hester thinks she knows, but wonders if you do.

She notes that Roimata's eyes are not smiling, and asks whether the listener is trying to replicate her expression as they view it. She reminds the listener to breathe.

> *More about this painting in Cassette #7: Sree Chitra Art Gallery (1979)*
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## Claudia Atieno with Cat, 1974

The painting may have been started before Claudia's death, but could also have been painted from memory. It shows Claudia's face and hair in realism, but her body becomes shapeless in an iridescent blouse, and the cat appears more like a melting pile of candles dripping down Claudia's legs. Hester brings up the likely inspiration of Atieno's *Self-Portrait with Cat*, the unfinished painting donated to the Ulster Museum by Pavel Zubov.

Hester interviewed Roimata as a student in 1978. She recalled seeing this painting, and asking Roimata about her relationship to Claudia, which was poorly received. She seemed unwilling to discuss Claudia, as well as the painting specifically. She said, "She denied ever painting that picture, so I just painted it myself. If she didn't want to put it into existence, then I would put it into existence." She paused for a long time, then added, "She hated cats, and I hated her for it."

Hester asks the listener to look at the painting and ask themself what it means to love something.

> *More about this painting and related paintings in Cassette #1: Tate Modern (1971), Cassette #2: Ulster Museum (1973), and Reel #10: June 21, 1961*
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## Horopito #2

Roimata moved back to Aotearoa in 1980, apparently no longer painting, while Hester was working in Chesapeake Bay, pausing her art studies to take a technical writing job. Hester learned that Roimata was back in her hometown and painting again in 1982, which made her want to resume her own studies and leave her current place of work. It took some time, but she was able to contact a pilot in Philadelphia who got her home, although by that time Roimata was already dead. Hester convinced a neighbour to let her in to Roimata's cottage by the sea when she said she was planning on reopening the gallery. She found that every painting in the house was of horopito shrubs.

The paintings were very simple - *Horopito #2* showed a simple bush growing at an angle from the side of a hill, against a grey sky. Two of the leaves have perfect circles cut out of them by beetles, and Hester says the paintings, done in acrylic, are photorealistic and beautiful, but mundane, liking it to Claudia's *Stapler (1968)*. Hester asks the viewer if they can feel any people within the painting.

## Horopito #4

From the same collection, this the painting Hester bought before Roimata returned to Aotearoa, usually hanging above her mantelpiece. She mentions her intent to drink tea with "her" and sit across from the painting. Hester invites the listener to consider what happened to the missing patch of branches on the plant, as her wife asked her the first time they looked at the painting together. She reminds them not to answer the question - the answer is unimportant, and defeats the point.

Hester says that while she was in North America she received a letter from a former professor letting her know that Roimata had died, alone, in her garden. She had not been found for some time after it happened. She viewed the letter as a call to escape, or a confirmation that her plans to escape were well-founded.

She reflects that Roimata's resentment of Claudia likely made her a better artist, but cost her the charisma needed for international recognition and success in the art world. Hester hopes she can at least make sure Roimata is recognised in her homeland, and intends to keep her paintings safe in the gallery, so that they will not get damaged like they would in her house, which is falling into disrepair. Hester's last visit to the cottage was a year prior, where she found only a cat that scratched her when she tried to feed it.

## Additional info

* This is the second tape to feature the Karikari Contemporary. The first was a donor exclusive prequel episode.
* In this cassette, it's revealed that Roimata recorded tapes for 11 different museums, but only nine were still open at the time of recording. Should one of these be the cassette she recorded for the Karikari Contemporary in 1969, this leaves one recording unheard by both Hester and the audience.