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(Photography: Ralph Brown, additional design: Tina Tiller)
(Photography: Ralph Brown, additional design: Tina Tiller)

PartnersAugust 24, 2023

Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole are shaping their own empire

(Photography: Ralph Brown, additional design: Tina Tiller)
(Photography: Ralph Brown, additional design: Tina Tiller)

For the latest instalment of our Art Work series, Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole talk about all the work that goes on behind the scenes of their art. 

Lissy (Ngāti Hineamaru, Ngāti Kahu) and Rudi (Waikato, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāruahine, Te Arawa) Robinson-Cole have been a multidisciplinary art-making duo since 2014, and have been artists in residence at the Nathan Homestead since 2021. Their work includes 2019’s Joyride, multiple exhibitions around the country, and their most ambitious work yet: Wharenui Harikoa, a large-scale crocheted wharenui.

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

On work-life balance

Rudi Robinson-Cole: Being an artist is not a nine-to-five, Monday to Friday type thing. It’s about the amount of work that we get in or the project that we’re working on. That tells us how much work we’ve got to do. We’re very driven people in our mahi and if we know that we have a deadline then we’ll keep to that deadline. The good thing about working here at the Nathan Homestead is that it’s a 24/7 thing, so we can come in early in the morning, we can come in late at night.

Lissy Robinson-Cole: We’ve just completed the making of our wharenui harikoa. We started that on January 8, 2021, so two and a half years ago and that really was an everyday thing. 

If we weren’t here physically making it, we were talking about it, thinking about it, dreaming about it, trying to find money for it, trying to make money doing other things. It’s full-on every day, every moment of your life. For us there is no separation. 

We’re kaupapa driven – it’s not just about crochet, it’s about this huge kaupapa of transformation and intergenerational healing, so it can be quite heavy. 

That’s the balance that we have to find, in that we don’t have to save the world, we just needed to bring forth into this realm this whare. That’s what the tūpuna have said. “All you need to do is make it, and we’ll take care of the rest.” We’ve reached that point. Now other opportunities are coming along for design work, so it’s busy. Really busy.

Lissy Cole Robinson & Rudi Robinson, Wharenui Harikoa, 2022. Image: Courtesy of the artists and The Dowse Art Museum

RRC: We keep ourselves open. If people were to walk in now and we’re working, we make time for them. We take care of them. That’s all part of it. Our kaupapa is manaaki – that we bring people in. A lot of our work has been through the people that we know and friendships that we’ve made.

LRC: But in terms of the journey to create this whare and to do what we do today, we both have had our nine-to-fives and I left mine to pursue what I knew was my soul’s purpose. That was creativity. I didn’t know how I was going to sustain myself or what that was going to look like but there has always been a burning desire to express myself creatively. 

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

Rudi was also working, also super creative but working with hard things like wood and metals. When we met there was this special energy when we created together and it brought us both so much joy so the first thing we really did was intentionalise this deep and burning desire to create together and sustain ourselves.

We didn’t know how that was going to be. We just kept praying for a way to be made, because we knew in our soul that this was how we wanted to live our lives, not doing nine-to-fives working for people with no vision. We’ve got a strong vision ourselves. 

I’d rather be living under a bridge than work for someone else ever again. I will hustle to live this life. 

On taking opportunities

LRC: We’re really open and I can spot opportunities. I can recognise when the opportunity train pulls in and I’m like “get onboard, we’re onboard”, so making that very strong clear intention and then being open to what this could be and knowing that we’ve been guided by our tūpuna has led us on this journey. 

I’ve always wanted to work with my daughter, I’ve always wanted to create a whānau empire, because why not? We want to work with our whānau, so we were really fortunate that my daughter came on to help with the administration. That will kill an artist in two seconds flat. That will make me want to go to an early grave, the administration. The thought of crocheting a wharenui would send her into an early grave too, though! 

Early on she jumped onboard to start to give us a hand with that, which is what we needed. That is the truth about being an artist and making a life that’s sustainable. 

RRC: You have to surround yourself with your peeps that you know are going to be there for you.

LRC: But you need real expert help too. You need a lawyer, you need marketing, you need business advice. We’re so blessed that in this journey these people have come on to our path to assist us. 

We choose this life 100% but we work for it too.

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

LRC: We just opened our show at the Tim Melville gallery, and he came in here to catch up with us to see how we were getting on with the mahi for the show. We told him all of the things we’ve got on the boil, all the things we’re imagining and envisioning into being and he was like “how do you hold it all? Do you find it exciting or exhausting?” 

I said both. It’s exhilarating but it’s also exhausting. I feel an urgency with life, because I know that at any moment we could transcend right on outta here. So I’m all about just going for it. Our work reflects that in the energy and the colour and the vibes that are coming off our work. There’s an urgency to it. I’m fast and furious in every way. How I drink, how I eat, how I live… fast and the furious. 

RRC: I think it’s about the energy too. With the right opportunity it brings a really awesome energy – you’re not tired, you’re not exhausted but then you can also gauge if it drains your energy then it’s not the right thing. Because you want something to also uplift you.

LRC: You have to go through a process to figure out if it’s the right thing or not. 

RRC: Weed out the thorns.

LRC: The good old opportunity train seems to pull in quite often at the moment. You’ve got to make hay while the sun shines!

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

On staying well

RRC: I’m an active relaxer. I have to potter around outside. I have to go do my lawns, I have to go be in the garden, but there’s some days where I’ll say to Lissy, “I’ve got to sleep” and then I’ll just shuffle off and put myself to bed for a couple of hours.

LRC: Rudi is a busy person! If he’s not mowing the lawns he’s rearranging the shed, if he’s not doing that he’s rearranging in here. I’m a relaxer relaxer. I love nothing more than to be on my couch watching my programmes on Netflix and chilling out. We also have a portable spa pool. Game changer. Everyone should have one.

What’s really good for us is working together, and I think we’re super fortunate in that way rather than when it’s just yourself and you’ve got to really step up or take a rest. The other day I was having a really low-energy day and we had people coming into the whare. I said to Rudi “I’m really tired”, and he took over and did all the talking and all the energy output.

RRC: With working together, when one’s down, we’ll pick the other up, because we’re not always on.

LRC: But also, it’s a total blessing to be doing this full time, so you do just have to force yourself. It’s part of the job and this is the only job I want so you just sometimes have to push through. 

This life is so awesome. I wouldn’t want any other life ever.

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

On what makes the work worth it

RRC: I was here at 6am on Monday finishing off the last of our wheke for the install of our show, and it was just me, here, making, in my pyjamas. It’s being in that beautiful current of creativity. 

LRC: Before the purpose and the wharenui became clear to us as a vision, when I’d just left my nine-to-five I’d be sitting in my sleepout at home making a cushion or whatever and at that stage I’d be going: “What am I doing? Does anyone give a shit that I’m making this cushion?” No. 

What’s the alternative? Go back to my nine-to-five? No. Then shut up and keep going.

RRC: And you’ve got to keep going. 

LRC: But I never ever ask myself that now. I know what I’m doing.

Yesterday we had Miriama Kamo come through and read to 40 kids from Wiri Central Kura inside the whare, her new pukapuka about Matariki. Kids don’t hold back, so once the doors opened and they saw the whare, all you heard was “wow, wow, wow”. She read the pukapuka and then they all stood up to do the haka and waiata tautoko and I was crying.

This is what we made our whare for: for all this energy of aroha to be expressed in this space of freedom, safety, joy, inspiration and colour. I feel like the tūpuna are like: “Good one, moko. You’re doing what you’re meant to be doing and being the conduit of love.”

On what would make it easier

RRC: A high trust model would help!

LRC: A high trust model! It’s hard because we’re all fighting for the same money, so really there should just be enough money. You want funding for your amazing idea? Cool, there it is; the pūtea is there for people to realise their visions.

Without art we’ve got nothing. Nothing. That’s why I don’t get people like the mayor – without art you’ve got nothing! 

(Photography: Ralph Brown)

– As told to Sam Brooks

Keep going!
(Image: Archi Banal)
(Image: Archi Banal)

PartnersAugust 21, 2023

An ode to the small wonders of New Zealand’s museums

(Image: Archi Banal)
(Image: Archi Banal)

Hundreds of museums dot the country – from the small-town collections that showcase a region’s quirky histories, to the large city museums that offer the chance to see relics from the world. We asked four writers to talk about their favourite museums or items from across the country.

Winifred Speight’s wedding dress, (Toitū Otago Settlers Museum)

Winifred Speight’s wedding dress (Photos: Tara Ward)

I’m a sucker for a fancy frock, and show me a museum with a couple of old corsets and some pretty lace and I will be yours forever. Toitū has my heart for its small but charming collection of Otago wedding finery, and of all the garments on display, I’m always drawn to one in particular.

I love this dress for the simple reason that it’s so beautiful. This 1930s wedding gown is timeless in style and elegance, made of a white satin that ripples like water, all fluid and sleek. I look at the delicate stitches made by an unknown dressmaker and wonder what they would think about their work being displayed nearly a century later, admired by strangers in a city they might not recognise. This bride must have loved herself sick in this dress, and rightly so. I would love to be the kind of woman who could wear a stunning gown like this and not look like a busty potato.

The lucky bride was Winifred Speight, who married lawyer Glynne Lloyd at Dunedin’s First Church in April 1935. Toitū describes it as “a real society wedding attended by a who’s who of business and legal circles”, and as the granddaughter of James Speight (founder of Dunedin’s iconic Speight’s Brewery), Winifred’s impeccable gown signified her family’s standing in local society. This dress is a living piece of post-depression, pre-war glamour, and it’s a long way from the modest (but equally as beautiful) cream dress my grandmother wore on her wedding day in Dunedin a decade later. It’s a beautiful moment in time, and in a world now obsessed with mass-produced, disposable clothing, this dress proves that style never goes out of fashion. / Tara Ward

The green chaise lounge in The Laurel Harris room, (Katherine Mansfield House & Garden, Wellington)

Green chaise lounge (Image: courtesy of Katherine Mansfield House & Garden)

The green chaise lounge, I’m fairly sure, did not belong to Katherine Mansfield’s family but it’s one of my favourite items in the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden. Partly because it’s green and velvet and it would suit my own lounge, partly because it fits perfectly with Katherine’s general aesthetic, but mostly because this is the seat from which I’ve spent a long time gazing at the timeline of Mansfield’s life and hardly taking in everything she managed to get done in 34 years. The Laurel Harris Room, as it’s called, features wall-to-wall information about Katherine’s entire life. It’s beautifully laid out and written, and the phases of her existence are punctuated by blown up black and white images of Katherine, as well as a copy of the famous red portrait of her by Anne Estelle Rice. In one of the photos Katherine is hauntingly thin. Her gaze is strong, even severe and you can see, quite clearly, how brilliant she was. Just by how determined she looks even while she was so sick. The older I get the more I admire Katherine’s writing and her short, bright life. It’s this room that holds it all and that I treasure now. Especially that chaise lounge: to immerse in history in such style and comfort is Very Wellington and Very Mansfield. / Claire Mabey

Fan/iliili, (Auckland War Memorial Museum)

Iliili, fan. Niue. Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira. 1929.90.

On more than one occasion, when I am weary or anxious, I have gone to Auckland Museum. My two favourite galleries are on either side of the north entrance, Pacific Lifeways and Pacific Masterpieces. I like interactive displays, videos of people talking about objects, but there is something about the stillness of these galleries that compels and calms me. 

In a series of cases there are reminders of how people in the Pacific islands are astonishingly resourceful, turning the natural materials around them into beautiful and functional objects; setting up sophisticated trade networks to acquire things they didn’t have on their islands. I like the tapa cloth, stretched wide with intricate painted patterns; a mortar and pestle made from dense volcanic rock.

But perhaps my favourite object is this fan from the Pacific Lifeways gallery. Woven pieces of coconut frond form a shape like a stingray, two arches meeting in the middle. I look at it for a long time. I think about how fiddly it is to weave small pieces of fibre in and out of each other. I imagine a humid day in Niue, sweat dripping along the maker’s skin. As they lashed the fan to a stick with human hair – their own? – were they imagining being their own hurricane, making a portable breeze to take with them, cooling on demand wherever they went? It’s beautiful, I think, because it is meticulously made, but also because it looks so useful. I’ll never meet the person who made this beautiful fan, but in the museum they are alive to me. When it’s hot, they, like me, longed to be cool. / Shanti Mathias

Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House, (Ōtautahi/Christchurch)

(Image: Supplied by Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House)

Visiting Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House was one of the very first things on my to-do list when I moved to Ōtautahi, but I wasn’t quite prepared for how moved (and later quietly enraged) I would feel by immersing myself in the lush Ilam grounds where she once lived. You can watch all the documentaries, biopics and rock musicals about Sheppard in the world, but nothing quite compares to standing in the same room where she glued together the “monster” 276 metre long petition that earned women the right to vote in our parliamentary elections.

With beautifully manicured rose gardens, a summer house and even a tennis court, the genteel setting feels laughably at odds with the revolutionary political act that took place within the walls of that four bedroom villa. More bamboozling still is the fact that this site of extreme social change and historical significance only very recently came into public ownership in 2019, purchased by the government and now cared and managed by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and, as the visitor host told me during my visit, was only discovered to have been Sheppard’s house in the 90s. 

As you move through the rooms and soak in details from her life and the suffragist movement, it becomes clear why it is so crucial that her house continues to be preserved and experienced by everyone. One of the final, sun-soaked spaces is lined wall to wall with women’s achievements in Aotearoa both before and after 1893, a reminder of how far we’ve come but also how far we’ve still got to go. “Do not think your final vote doesn’t matter much,” a Kate Sheppard quote on the wall reads. “The rain that refreshes the parched Earth is made up of single drops.” / Alex Casey

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