Aroha Gossage’s matrilineal landscapes
Emil Scheffmann speaks to Aroha Gossage’s gallerists Grace Alty and Libby Storey at ARTIS about Gossage’s latest series of atmospheric paintings that look toward her home environment of Pakiri.
Aroha Gossage, Wairua, 2021, oil on board, 50 x 75 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARTIS Gallery
Aroha Gossage, Still, 2021, oil on board, 50 x 75 cm. Courtesy of the artist and ARTIS Gallery
Emil Sheffmann: The art of post-contact Aotearoa has seen so many attempts to represent land, and in each iteration there seems to be some sense for what it could be—plotted and sold, preserved and romanticised; a source of spiritual revival. Do you believe that Aroha Gossage’s artworks hold a wish for the land, and how do they navigate this dense history of representation?
Grace Alty and Libby Storey: Aroha Gossage’s works focus on her home environment of Pakiri, north of Auckland—the beach, river and surrounding land. She credits her mother and sisters as prominent influences on her work. Many of her works focus on her whanau, who have always maintained strong links with their land and about the continuation of many generations ahead who will continue to be kaitiaki of Pakiri.
Through familial ties, Gossage learnt how to live off the land and cherish its importance as part of her heritage. The precious matrilineal knowledge that her mother gave her, how to fish and how to grow kai, is of fundamental importance in her practice. In conversation with us, she has said, “I feel it is part of our connection to our whenua. We move away, we live in two worlds, but we always return back to our hau kainga (homeland). It was through my mother (deceased) that my sisters and I have always remained connected. I love the concept of manaakitanga and communal ways of giving, sharing, looking after one another, and providing for one another.”
Time seems to drift in these paintings. Light almost moves across the land, pinks blues and lilacs appear fleetingly. Representations of Te Ao Māori seem suspended between the present and an imagining of the past. What is the world we are witnessing?
Gossage’s depictions of landscape are often, but not exclusively, absent of human habitation. She focusses on depicting scenes that are imbued with ancestral knowledge and references her childhood growing up in Pakiri. The landscape is not only depicted, but also included within Gossage’s works by the use of earth pigments in her compositions. Gossage incorporates kokowai with oil paint to create the luminous sweeps of colour which define her landscape works. She seeks kokowai out because of its “gentle purity” in handling, as well as its “unspoken power” visually. “These rich earth colours you can’t buy in a tube,” says Gossage. She collects the medium herself, allowing her time on the land, thinking and exploring. “I know where to go to get rich reds, up by the dam. There are pure whites and blues if you dig a metre down in a special spot under our bridge. The ochres are on the corner by the gravel road up by my aunties, and I find lovely greys at our waterfall.”
The tradition of ‘en plein air’ is often associated with the Impressionists, yet Gossage channels this emphasis on presence and attention to the moment of painting to create a very different kind of kaupapa. How do these ideas feed into Gossage’s artwork?
The sense of light in much of Gossage’s work results from manoeuvring oil pigment on board, to create what she calls ‘soft hazy gradients.’ When the paint dries there are unprecedented beautiful effects that happen between the solvent and the pigment that give a likeness of atmosphere within her compositions. The sanding between each coat—to create a fine surface with a silky finish—can also achieve effects as seen in her work ‘Wairua.’