Art of the city

A $3 million commitment to public art is set to redefine Tauranga’s public spaces.

Words | Monique Balvert-O’Connor
Photos | Anne Shirley + Sam Hartnett

Public art humanises the built environment, sparking community engagement and fostering appreciation for creativity. Now Tauranga is set to become a destination renowned for public art, thanks to a just-launched Public Art Framework.

Tauranga city’s commissioners have adopted a “bold and ambitious” new plan for public art, dedicating up to $3 million toward undertaking major public art commissions over the coming years – works of scale and vision the likes of which the city hasn’t seen before.

Tauranga City Council’s arts and culture manager James Wilson says the plan is to build a world-leading collection of public art, and to invest in developing local artists and the community to create “incredible” new pieces and installations, all of which will help make Tauranga a destination renowned for its public art.

“The framework has been developed alongside a wide range of Tauranga artists and arts organisations, and I’m hugely excited by what this will enable for the city. It is focused on shining a light on the stories of our city – working with artists and communities to give visibility to Tauranga’s stories, and to create a sense of place and belonging, by bringing great public art to our re-imagined public spaces,” James says.

Especially wonderful, James says, is the fact public art is the most accessible of art – works the whole community can engage with, without having to buy a ticket, or cross an art gallery entrance.

Freelance art consultant and curator Ellie Smith, who has been involved in developing the new framework through Supercut Projects, says the public can expect an invigoration of Tauranga’s artistic landscape. Think: Lightboxes, sculpture, pop-up installations, light works, participatory works, creative hoardings and ngā toi Māori in all its forms. All this as well as still supporting and encouraging community and temporary installations such as murals, she says.

The framework involves a region-wide view. There will be significant commissioning of work for downtown Tauranga, yet inspiring pieces of public art will also be placed at the Mount, Greerton, Pyes Pa, and other significant locations. The Framework includes a 10 Year Master Plan which will map public art activity, in step with city-wide development and Tauranga City Council’s Long-Term Plan. 

“Our city has been going through some growing pains, but I am so excited to see how this transforms Tauranga,” Ellie says.

She’s noted both hunger and support in the community for this ambitious undertaking, which comes with many benefits. It is globally recognised that cities succeed both economically and in wellbeing statistics when arts and culture are prioritised. 

“The Public Art Framework will contribute to the local economy, give opportunities to local artists, and give space for mana whenua to tell their narratives. It will add to the city’s vibrancy and also show domestic and international visitors that the city is about more than solely a beach,” Ellie says.

Incubator director Simone Anderson says the new Public Art Framework
and arts investment gives reassurance that Tauranga can “begin the game of catch-up.”

“We can become a city where arts are not considered an indulgence but
a necessary ingredient to nourish our city’s identity and to encourage and welcome expressions of culture and storytelling,” she says.

The new framework aims to enable projects that will explore the diverse cultural narratives of the city. This has been met with enthusiasm by Julie Paama-Pengally, who chairs Te Tuhi Mareikura Trust – an organisation committed to building the capacity of Māori artists and enhancing the contribution of Māori to Tauranga Moana.

“I believe this is an opportunity to bring to life, in unique ways, the significant legacy of Māori visual language. In articulating the rich art traditions of Aotearoa, New Zealand, Māori have so much value to add to this space.

“For our Māori artists and the community, this will be an important expression of a Māori arts legacy for future generations. Our landscape will reflect our aspirations as artists, as people, as a unique destination in the world, and as a place that reflects its people,” she says.

The Public Art Fund will open on July 1 next year, but Tauranga will welcome new public art before then. A work called Kōwhai Grove by Bobbie Gray has been commissioned, opening over King’s Birthday weekend. It will be installed down a laneway off Grey Street. There are also some other significant Tauranga City Council-led projects in the works – check out the app City Art Walk Tauranga.

Artists wishing to know more about the commissioning process (and the support available) can contact Council’s Arts & Culture team at: publicart@tauranga.govt.nz

Taaniko: the woman behind the mural

WORDS Laura McCleannan PHOTOS Tracie Heasman

If you’ve driven down Totara Street recently, chances are you’ve seen it. A young Māori woman’s striking features, painted by famous Irish street artist Fin DAC, embellish a 7-metre-high wall in what has become one of The Mount’s most recognisable murals. Her hair is wild, her stance strong, and her eyes are a clever reflection of Mauao in the distance (if you look close enough). Her name is Taaniko Nordstrom. She’s the model, artist, and entrepreneur behind Soldiers Rd Portraits – a unique Māori portraiture business that Taaniko runs with her sister-in-law, Vienna, in Cambridge.

“People don’t realise it’s me, until they see me wear the moko,” Taaniko explains during our photoshoot. Seeing the two faces side by side, however, it’s clear Fin is one helluva talented artist. He first flew to New Zealand in 2015, in search of a muse for the Mount Maunganui Street Art Festival. “His usual aesthetic is Asian women,” Taaniko says, “but he wanted to paint someone indigenous. He googled ‘Māori woman portrait’, and my face came up. I said yes straight away because I knew it would be a statement – a Māori woman with a moko in the middle of The Mount? How cool!

“Fin didn’t know anything about the Māori culture, be he wanted to learn. So when he started to paint the mural, I came to Waiata Tautoko, and sang for him. I told him this is how we show support in our culture, and he was blown away. After getting to know me a bit better, Fin felt like my hair needed to be wilder, so he went back and changed it. We really vibed as artists.”

While Fin was painting her, Taaniko was trying to keep up with her own portraiture business, which was exploding in New Zealand as well as internationally. “I’m the typical Kiwi entrepreneur story – I got back from travelling in 2013 and was dirt broke. Mum is an artist so we always had portraits of native American chiefs on the wall. But it wasn’t until I saw the original photos of these chiefs (at the Smithsonian in New York) that I started thinking about photos of Māori leaders. I wanted to bring them to life in some way.

“When I got home I went to the op shop and asked mum to help me whip up some old-school korowai (cloaks), piupiu (skirts) and collars. I got dressed, went into the shed, drew a moko on myself, and took a photo on my iPad. I aged the photo with a filter and chucked it on Facebook. Almost immediately I had people asking where I had the photo taken and how much it cost. I was like, what? People would pay for this?!

“I called Vienna and told her to bring her camera to the Kawhia Kai Festival. She’d never done a portrait before – she’s a landscape photographer. But she loved the idea, so we packed up a big suitcase of props and an old broken gazebo, and set up a stall. It was completely hotchpotch – our backdrop was a duvet cover from the Sallies in Cambridge. We did over 40 portraits that day, and two days later we rocked up at the South Auckland market and did another 50 portraits. The rest is history.”

“We’ve moko’d up kids in a New York subway, a barber shop in Brooklyn, and couples under the Eiffel Tower. We got a lot of attention quite quickly because no one does what we do.”

In true laid-back kiwi style, Taaniko didn’t even organise market stalls – they just turned up and sweet-talked their way in. I suppose tenacity is a given with six older brothers. “My family have always encouraged me to be proud of my culture and to think outside the square. In fact, the name Soldiers Rd was inspired by memories of travelling to The Mount from Cambridge as a child. Whenever we’d pass Soldiers Rd at the bottom of the Kaimais, Mum would ask us what we thought the name meant. I thought it represented someone’s story, or their journey through life. When we first started editing our portraits, all of the eyes looked so defiant. Immediately I thought of Soldiers Rd, and the name stuck.”

From homeless men on the street to the Duchess of Austria on her private yacht, Taaniko’s shot thousands of people, and her work has taken her across the globe. “We ran Soldiers Rd from Papamoa for a year and have a studio in Cambridge, but our whole business packs into two bags, so we’re always travelling. We’ve moko’d up kids in a New York subway, a barber shop in Brooklyn, and couples under the Eiffel Tower. We got a lot of attention quite quickly because no one does what we do – no one had taken moko off kapa haka stages and used it in a completely different space.” So, what’s the Soldiers Rd experience like? “It’s authentic,” Taaniko explains, “but it’s also a modern take, because we shoot all nationalities. Whether you’re brown, white, yellow or green, the first thing we do is whakawhanaungatanga – we talk about where we’re from and establish a relationship. I start styling as soon as people walk in the door. But this connection sets the vibe for the day, and that's the most important part. If I can’t connect with the person and make them feel proud of who they are, their eyes will look dead in the photo. I have half an hour to mould a mind and create a story. The fastest part is taking the photo!” She’s not a trained makeup artist or hairstylist, but Taaniko credits her love of fashion and time as a flight attendant for her beauty and styling skills. “We dress clients, style their hair and use a stencil to do a temporary moko. The stencils have been blessed for the purpose of reuse. All of our props are from op shops or old theatres. I chop them up and use big clips from Bunnings to keep clothing in place.”

Taaniko is proudly contributing to a resurgence of Māori culture in New Zealand. If you haven’t seen her on Totara Street yet, look up next time you drive away from The Mount. “Twenty years ago, it wasn’t possible to have a job that paid me to inspire Māori and non-Māori through Māori culture. I’m so excited to think that my kids will grow up surrounded by Kiwis with a connection to our important culture. Everyone has a legacy and a story, and my favourite thing about Soldiers Rd is that I get to visually capture it for people.”

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