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Gisborne artist gets taste of Big Apple
Thursday, October 11, 2012
JUST three months ago, Gisborne-raised artist Johnson Witehira (Nga Puhi/Tamahaki) was upping his profile with Ko Aoteoroa Tenei!, an exhibition of his digital art installed at Wellington’s Toi Poneke Gallery.

Now his profile has risen beyond what he ever imagined. His work has been beamed out from one of the world’s biggest and most recognisable digital stages . . . Times Square, New York.

A PhD student at Massey University’s Te Putahi a Toi, Witehira was one of three to have been named winners of the Chorus digital art competition, which was open to tertiary students from across the country.

Works by him, Elspeth Hoskin (Massey University) and Hayley Heartbreak (Media Design School) yesterday hit the 12 massive digital billboards and 24 digital screens in the heart of Times Square.

The event was a bit of a marketing ploy on the part of network company Chorus, which wanted to demonstrate how fibre connections could put New Zealand on the world stage.

But it has had happy spin-offs for the artists who didn’t just get something nice to put on their CVs . . . they each also received $5000 in prize money, and were flown to New York for yesterday’s digital exhibition.

Ten finalists also had their work screened, and each was awarded a prize of $1000.

Twenty-nine-year-old Witehira’s recent work has been graphic art depictions of Kiwi “heroes”, which the artist has tweaked — for example, by adding facial moko — to suit his own world view.

His work, he said, came from his experience of growing up in Gisborne where he was the typical urban kid whose heroes were in video games or movies, and who did not speak te reo Maori.

“I’ve created portraits of people who I think are fundamental to New Zealand’s sense of identity and the key thing for me is that it includes both Maori and Pakeha tupuna,” the artist said. “I was really trying to resolve the conflict you have as being someone who is half-caste, someone of mixed identity.”
ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: Artist Johnson Witehira, pictured in New York yesterday. Picture supplied
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