Détour by Michael Parekowhai

Détour by leading conceptual artist Michael Parekowhai provides alternative ways to encounter and experience art. Whimsical but with a critical edge, Détour is his response to the repositioning of contemporary art at Te Papa with the opening of the new gallery.

When | Āhea 17 Mar – 8 Nov 2018
Where | Ki hea Toi Art, Level 4
Cost | Te utu Free entry
Ages | Te reanga All ages
Accessibility | E wātea ana ki
- Wheelchair accessible
Find out more about accessibility at Te Papa

Working with ideas such as portability, journeying, and the unearthing of treasures, Michael Parekowhai has created a conceptually layered exhibition that upends fine art conventions and art gallery etiquette, and questions notions of value and taste.

Drawing on works from the Art, History, Taonga Māori and Archive collections at Te Papa, and loaned artworks, alongside an elephant, bobble-headed monkeys, and other works created specifically for the show, Parekowhai’s beguiling installation, his forest of plastic trees, ‘mines the museum’ and reframes art you perhaps already know.

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Michael Parekowhai, Standing on Memory (installation view), 2018, fibreglass, automative paint. Photograph by Maarten Holl. Te Papa
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Foreground, from left:
- Michael Parekowhai, Constable Plum Bob (installation view), 2018, fibreglass, automotive paint. Photograph by Maarten Holl. Te Papa
- Michael Parekowhai, Hoodwinked (installation view), 2018, fibreglass, automotive paint. Photograph by Maarten Holl. Te Papa
Background:
- Colin McCahon, Northland Panels (installation view), 1958, oil-modified alkyd, canvas. Photograph by Maarten Holl. Te Papa
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From left:
- Kate Sylvester and Michael Parekowhai, Le très joli gilet aka corpus (installation view), 2018, wool, silk, rose gold. Collection of Kate Sylvester & Wayne Conway. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai
- Theo Schoon, Untitled [Thermals] (installation view), about 1966 (printed 2018), Kodak colour Ektachrome transparency, printed on Fuji flex paper. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai
- Theo Schoon, Untitled [General thermal views and landscape] (installation view), about 1966 (printed 2018), Kodak colour Ektachrome transparency, printed on Fuji flex paper. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai
- Frances Hodgkins, The Croft House, Bradford on Tone, Taunton, Somerset (installation view), 1946, gouache on plywood. Purchased 2000 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board fund. Te Papa (2000-0007-1)
- Michael Parekowhai, Tiki Tour (installation view), 2018, fibreglass, automotive paint. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai
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Michael Parekowhai, Constable Plum Bob (installation view), 2018, fibreglass, automotive paint. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai
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A man looks at the reverse side of Colin McCahon, Northland panels (installation view), 1958, oil-modified alkyd, canvas. Purchased 1978 with Ellen Eames Collection funds and assistance from the New Zealand Lottery Board. Te Papa (1978-0009-1/A-H to H-H)
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Michael Parekowhai, Tiki Tour, 2018, fibreglass, automotive paint. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai
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Theo Schoon, Pebble Pool at Whakarewarewa, about 1966 (printed 2018 by Mark Adams), Kodak colour Ektachrome transparency (Te Papa Collection), printed on Fuji flex paper. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai
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Michael Parekowhai, The shortcut gallery, 2018, mixed media. Courtesy of Michael Parekowhai