Nineteen Ninety Three
Artist
Cotton, Shane
Date
1993
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Object Detail
Description
Shane Cotton explores Māori and European bicultural identity through his figurative painting. A cultural surrealist, Cotton juxtaposes Māori and European motifs in contrived encounters, often using one image—here an ancient greek-style kylix, or chalice—to hold systems of nested metaphor. Cotton serves up venerated lands—symbolising Māori guardianship—in a ceremonial wine-drinking cup, with giant numbers—1865 denoting the start of the New Zealand Land Wars—balanced on the edge. Mediating lands through a historical gaze, when Māori and European were first enmeshed within the “collision and collusion” of their cultural relationship, Cotton’s mists-of-time sepia-toned palette recalls ochres used in traditional toi Māori and European old masters, and Dali-esque clocks collapse European and Māori time.
A key figure in the 90’s ‘new generation’ of Māori artists, Cotton’s emblematic paintings were rooted in Aotearoa New Zealand’s collective cultural unconscious and timely, prompting a re-think of our colonially-occupied, unjust history.
Shane Cotton (born 1964, Upper Hutt; Ngapuhi: Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha, Pākehā) graduated from Christchurch’s Ilam School of Fine Arts in 1988, , and lectured in Maori Visual Arts at Massey University before becoming a full-time painter, exhibiting nationally and at the 2010 17th Sydney Biennale. Based in Palmerston North, Cotton was awarded a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate Award, 2008 and an ONZM Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012.
A key figure in the 90’s ‘new generation’ of Māori artists, Cotton’s emblematic paintings were rooted in Aotearoa New Zealand’s collective cultural unconscious and timely, prompting a re-think of our colonially-occupied, unjust history.
Shane Cotton (born 1964, Upper Hutt; Ngapuhi: Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha, Pākehā) graduated from Christchurch’s Ilam School of Fine Arts in 1988, , and lectured in Maori Visual Arts at Massey University before becoming a full-time painter, exhibiting nationally and at the 2010 17th Sydney Biennale. Based in Palmerston North, Cotton was awarded a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate Award, 2008 and an ONZM Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012.
Media
Oil on wood panel
Measurements
405 x 1990 x 22mm
Registration number
ART00052
Artist
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