Catalyst: Michael Parekōwhai
On closer inspection, the sitter’s identity becomes apparent: the once celebrated British navigator and explorer Captain James Cook (1728–79).
Image credit: Michael Parekōwhai, The English Channel, 2015, stainless steel, 257 x 166 x 158 cm. Courtesy Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased with funds provided by Peter Weiss AO 2016 © Michael Parekōwhai
Of Māori (Ngāti Whakarongo) and Pākehā (European) descent, artist Michael Parekōwhai (b. 1968) was identified as a rising star prior to graduating from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 1990. He has since gained a reputation for creating striking, witty and thought-provoking installations underpinned with historical and political references.
His parents, both teachers, taught Parekōwhai the importance of knowledge. As collectors Jim Barr and Mary Barr observed: “From [Marcel] Duchamp, Parekōwhai absorbed three critical concepts: the conviction that individual works are part of a larger whole; the permission to replicate and re‑engineer works and ideas long after their first iterations; and the belief that is the audience that brings a work to life.”
The Art Gallery of New South Wales’ The English Channel, created by Parekōwhai in 2015, poses more questions than answers. Almost three metres tall, the striking, highly polished stainless-steel sculpture depicts a seated male figure dressed in 18th-century attire. Surrounding the sculpture are small figures wearing security uniforms, drawing parallels to Māori ancestor guardians.
On closer inspection, the identity of the main seated figure becomes apparent: the once celebrated British navigator and explorer Captain James Cook (1728–79). The source of Parekōwhai’s Cook imagery is Nathaniel Dance’s 1776 portrait, housed in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.
Unlike public monuments that glorify European voyages and exploration of ‘exotic’, far-reaching lands such as Australia and New Zealand, Parekōwhai’s Cook sits precariously on the edge of a trestle with a downward-looking gaze. The plinth has ... Subscribe to read this article in full
