Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Alter(ed) Map

My latest passion is making boxes/alters/cabinets covered in old maps. This is my best one so far.

It refers to a current controversy about the names of a mountain and a river in Whangarei. The local Maori are lobbying to change the names by one or two vowels so that they actually mean what they are supposed to and not the English-settler mangled version which got entrenched into officialdom long long ago.

Our local libertarian MP has decided that stirring up ill feeling between Maori and Pakeha on this issue is an excellent start to her election campaign. It makes me so very very cross: the arrogant, self righteous, bigotry of their 'PC-Free NZ'campaign, the pointlessness of Pakeha staunchly defending their ancestor's historical misspellings, the way that this issue has become a hook to hang out all sorts of racist assumptions and stereotypes...

So I made this, and its such a pretty little (23x12x5.5cm) box too. I'm taking it to sell at the Art and Craft Show at Parua Bay Hall this Queen's Birthday Monday (6 June).

No comments: