Merrilyn George

This series was first inspired by the taonga in our museums.

A close look at the processes and the handwork done so painstakingly, showed the mathematical accuracy in the pattern.

 The addition of new materials through European contact is a hallmark of the transitional period. It kept drawing me to sit with the cloaks and ponder about the people who made them.

 Conceptual Ideas Addressed

 The inspiration for my work is the questioning of purity of cultural and spiritual ideas. With the shift/movement of ideas and expression through exposure to different time, people, materials and land, there is a building of diversity and richness.

 The focus is ‘on the edge’, the place of movement.

Everything is connected through thought, experience and energy - layering is a metaphor for the creative process in the spiritual context.

Kaitaka 1

This was the first experiment and I used hemp fabric for the body of the work and a self patterned  woven fabric.

Kaitaka 2

The body of this quilt is silk noil and the pieced panel is made of cotton. Layered fabrics use natural and synthetic fibres, constructed from raw materials.

The reverse side of this quilt includes a fabric folded and dyed by my grandson Te Uhi Hakaraia, and another piece which has been printed using iron enriched earth.

Kaitaka 3

The third of this series has a shift of the intensely worked layered fabrics and Kaitaka 2

The body of this quilt is silk noil and the pieced panel is made of cotton. Layered fabrics use natural and synthetic fibres, constructed from raw materials.

The reverse side of this quilt includes a fabric folded and dyed by my grandson Te Uhi Hakaraia, and another piece which has been printed using iron enriched earth.

Kaitaka 4

The fourth of this series includes on the reverse mud paintings using mud from a site in Howick and another from a place in Nelson. I have been experimenting with the traditional techniques for dyeing muka, and translated the processes to colour cotton fabric.

Kaitaka 5

The fifth in the series include 2 pieced panels which are now less formal and have been constructed without a pattern or drawing.

The mud drawing on the reverse of this piece is from a dream which I had in September last year, from which there was an affirming and peaceful experience. The paru(mud) for this drawing came from an old paru pit on my daughter and son in law’s place at Makaranui.

Kaitaka 6

The last of the series has resolved to less formal and innovative piecing, and the layered fabric has grown in size.

Mud for the reverse painting came from Howick and Makaranui.