About

This body of work extends Te Oro resident artist Marie Hemo Titi Mapa's practice of weaving Moana/Māori urban narratives through mixed media and site-responsive installations. The work explore the dynamic relationship between shadow, light, and architectural environment, creating spaces where story and place converge.

Central to this exhibition is Marie's continued engagement with marginalised techniques and investigate how indigenous stories can be embedded within everyday urban spaces, challenging conventional modes of display while creating new pathways for cultural visibility and connection.

The shift toward transparency and light-filled formats reflects both material exploration and conceptual evolution, where the interplay of illumination and shadow becomes a metaphor for the ways our narratives move through and inhabit contemporary urban landscapes.

Exhibition opening Saturday 6 September 1pm

Marie Hemo Titi Mapa

Marie Hemo Titi Mapa (Ngāti Te Rino, Ngāti Hine; Hihifo, Niuatoputapu; Taunga, Vava’u) is a Māori–Pasifika artist based in Ōtara. Working across painting, installation, and community engagement, her practice explores identity, memory, and power from an urban Indigenous perspective. A 2024 BFA graduate of Whitecliffe College of Art & Design, she recently debuted her solo exhibition reclaim at The Good The Bad Gallery and Tātou in Glen Innes. Rooted in wānanga and the act of luva, her work creates space for collective storytelling, Indigenous knowledge, and cultural resilience.