Loretta Reynolds – In Tangaroa We Trust, Exhibition August 2011

In a new series of works on transparent acrylic sheet, Reynolds’ on-going exploration of contemporary Rarotongan cultural values incorporates new motifs with an innovative visual presentation.

Painting with a reflective surface, the artist essentially paints in reverse, leading in with the darkest colours and finishing with the lightest, immediate parallels with the William Wyatt Gill book ‘From Darkness to Light in Polynesia’ are drawn, however with the premise somewhat  reversed.

The Rarotongan God Tangaroa remains front and center along with developing iconography. The Cook Islands Coat of Arms is referenced, cultural appreciation and understanding (as the title of the show suggests) is asked for. The DNA of past and future generations is carried forward within a new turtle motif, the patterns of the turtle shell fascinating to the artist, the patterns themselves serving as a record of Cook Islands genealogy

Reynolds humorous reference to the throwaway,  incongruous by-line of American identity, draws  her viewers’ attention through a vortex of cultural veracity, the mirror like presentation of the show delivering a universe of past, present and future self-analysis.

‘In Tangaroa we Trust’ is a definitive statement of cultural foundation for a contemporary generation.

ENDS

In Reynolds’ recent series of work, the Cook Islands traditional deity Tangaroa once again takes centre stage. The artist continues her re-presentation of the totemic icon, focusing on his ‘resurrection’ over the last four decades, a primary identity in an emergent, modern Pacific culture.

Rather than lament the obvious, that the God had been ‘MIA’ since the arrival of the Evangelical London Missionary Society into Cook Islands society some 140 years prior, Reynolds draws attention to the fact that Tangaroa has been warmly re-embraced by the broader

Cook Islands society, appearing on all forms of apparel, print media, postage stamps, shopping bags, buses, boats, flags, artworks, TV commercials, the internet, restaurant menu’s, a plethora of tourist souvenirs’, currency, company logos, international destination campaigns (to name but a few) and most importantly, as himself, carved in replica by the tens of thousands over the past half century, providing vital daily income to the descendants’ of some his former faction.

In a large scale series of painted panels, the head of the god appears, surrounded by the Rarotongan motifs Manu Tai (Sea Birds), Tiare (Flower), Raranga (Weave), Tikitiki Tangata (The People) and Korare (Spear Head), demonstrative of his political & divine status in Rarotonga prior to the arrival of the gospel. Tangaroa’s manifestly human eye engages his viewer, inviting them to rediscover the fountain of cultural knowledge he still retains and to observe his modern milieu.

In an artistic voyage that encompasses past, present and future, Reynolds acknowledges personal origins, societal development & rediscovery and intrepidly observes that perceived negative aspects of Cook Islands history cannot be discarded forever.

As an old god rises to become the definitive symbol of contemporary Cook Islands culture, he will, like the journeys of old, watch over a brand new voyage into the future of a nation increasingly aware of its rich history.  Loretta will next exhibit in Lisbon, Portugal, May 2011.

In 2010, Reynolds graduated with a masters degree in Art & Design from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

Selected Solo Exhibitions: Maketi Ples, Sydney (2012); In Tangaroa We Trust, BCA Gallery, Rarotonga (2011); The Spirit of Tangaroa, Colorida Galeria De Arte, Lisbon( 2011), Voyage, BCA Gallery, Rarotonga (2010); History, Freshly Squeezed, Reef Gallery, Auckland (2005) .  Selected Group Exhibitions: Aue Te Mataora, BCA Gallery, Rarotonga (2002); Vaka, BCA Gallery, Rarotonga (2003); Te Ata Ou, Gallery O/BCA, Christchurch (2003); Turama, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch (2004); Recent Works, BCA Gallery, Rarotonga (2005).

Reawakening an Ancient God Courtesy ESCAPE Magazine & BCA Gallery

Close to ten years ago, Cook Islander Loretta Reynolds felt her career as a graphic designer in Auckland had reached a plateau, so sidestepping off that flat terrain she “opted out of the whole thing.” Moving to Rarotonga in 2000, husband Chris took up building and Loretta entered semi-retirement, content at the time to take up golf. “I bought a set of golf clubs which I’ve never used,” not surprising, now that her life has become busy as a leading Cook Islands contemporary artist.

Loretta credits her somewhat shy entry into the local contemporary art scene with a $20 Creative NZ art class held in Rarotonga nine years ago, thinking as she signed up for it “what do I have to lose?”

“I met all the right people…Ian & Kay George, Richard Cooper, Ben Bergman…they all gave me so much encouragement.”

“My journey over the last nine years has been one of the biggest adventures of my life, the first was being introduced to the contemporary art scene of Rarotonga and another was successfully completing a Master’s Degree in art and design through the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) 1n 2010. It has been a wonderful adventure.” Of her thesis Through the Eyes of Tangaroa, Loretta writes that it has “…proven to be an essential personal learning process, not just for the technical issues relating to my artwork, but in helping me reconnect with my culture and traditions. I have learnt to value tradition and at the same time, I now feel comfortable about reworking these images and changing them. It is her hope that her arts project “contributes to the growing appreciation of Cook Islands’ contemporary art, and through my own work I am able to communicate a renewed sense of understanding and respect for Tangaroa, the principle god of Rarotongan mythology.”

Reynolds locale is essential to her artistic process, “I want to promote this country, to promote Rarotonga, that’s quite important to me.” Loretta employs a specific selection of Cook Islands ancestral and contemporary patterns and her works are strikingly linear. All works are left slightly unfinished which she says “leaves the door open for the viewer to keep going. She hopes that in some of the patterns, viewers will see the people, the family, and symbols of courage that are “typically Rarotongan.”

In her master’s degree thesis she writes that her work “presents a personal perspective of aspects of Rarotongan mythology communicated through a multimedia art project.”  To support this concept, the work was imagined through the metaphor of Polynesian migration and the ancient ocean voyages of long ago. Loretta also believed the elliptical eye of the god Tangaroa to be distinctly Rarotongan. She subsequently found three references that pinned the elliptical eye directly to Rarotonga and this theory was accepted by her tutors. The eyes of the god Tangaroa are a characteristic element of the artist’s ongoing ‘Kimi Anaga Ou’ series. Loretta’s thesis culminated in a large presentation of her work at BCA Gallery in February 2010 entitled ‘Voyage’.
“I really, really am comfortable being who I am doing something I dearly love…the island has given me that, I would dearly love to return something to the island.” She is, with her talent and her art.

LISBON EXHIBITION

Loretta Reynolds makes history this year as the first Cook Islands contemporary artist to exhibit in Lisbon, Portugal.

The solo exhibition will be staged at Colorida Galeria de Arte 14 - 27 May, and will feature 15 new works. How she came about to exhibit in Portugal was “the weirdest thing,” says Loretta. “I had revamped my website, and I decided to put up some new images of pieces I had done during the degree, when out of the blue I got this email that says ‘would you like to exhibit at our art gallery’.” Thinking at first it had to be a scam, Loretta dismissed the emailed invitation. But the opportunity of a lifetime was not missed thanks to husband Chris who urged Loretta to write back and accept.

The logistics of taking large pieces to such a far off destination haven’t been easy. After finding a canvas stretching operation fairly close to the gallery, Loretta has opted to travel with a suitcase full of rolled canvases, rather than framed works. For six months she has been working towards the exhibition, walking each day from their beachside Muri home to her nearby studio. And every day before she starts work, Loretta says she looks at her pencil or her paintbrush and says “have a good day.”

She then immerses herself into making Cook Islands history.

Florence Syme-Buchanan