Wastelands is an exhibition by Brett Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui), currently on at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
The exhibition is presenting one of Graham’s most powerful sculptural works, Wastelands, commissioned as a response to works of his father Fred Graham’s in the 1970s for the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, alongside a new video work, Whangamārino, a panorama of footage documenting a fire raging across the Whangamārino wetlands, which shares the same locational subject as the sculptural work it displays itself with.
The works address the rich history of this area and resulting degradation – continuing an interest in Graham’s practice in the impact of Pākehā settlement and colonisation on tangata whenua and te taiao. Where Waikato-Tainui lands were once abundant in resources and other taonga, the wetlands were confiscated by the colonial government following the 1863-64 Waikato War, through the Waste Lands Act 1858 and New Zealand Settlements Act 1863, and sold as pasture.
Being the first time Wastelands has been exhibited in Aotearoa, the exhibition shows Graham bringing to life his vision for installation, inviting the viewer into a powerful, ominous, and almost haunting environment.
Sofia had a kōrero with Brett Graham about the making of Wastelands.
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