A new exhibition has opened at Wellington's Te Papa Museum, kicking off the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
The artwork, named 'In Pursuit of Venus [infected]', was created by Lisa Reihana and opened on Friday.
It is Reihana's view of what 19th-century wallpaper 'Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique' should have looked like.
"It's this kind of odd combination, it's quite magical and quite artistic but it makes you see the world in a different way. I'm hoping it invites the audience to consider our histories and contemporary times in a different manner," she says.
The artwork has been on show around the world, including at the Venice Biennale, but this is the first time it is on show in Wellington and forms part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts.
While most events run between February 21 and March 20, festival director Ngā Toi Māori Mere Boynton says this exhibition serves both as a launch event and a preview of what's to come.
"It's the jewel in the crown for us, or the feather in our cap."
Unlike many other festivals, it is lucky to be going ahead.
"We just have to flow like water - we have no control over COVID so we have to find ways of adapting and changing," Boynton says.
But for artist Reihana, COVID-19 alert level 3 lockdown in Auckland has meant she couldn't even open her own exhibition.
She says it's frustrating - but is happy others will get to enjoy it.
"It is interesting when thinking about this work and some of the ideas particularly when Europeans were travelling to Aotearoa and some of the flu bugs that travelled with them, we are still in that situation now."
