Jo Torr continues her explorative research of mutual cultural exchange, creating one-off garments as unique ‘conceptual artworks’. In this new series she examines the historical interrelation of Māori cloaks/kākahu and European woollen blankets. She draws attention to the way European clothing was adopted and adapted by Māori, how blankets replaced cloaks while simultaneously wool, embroidery techniques and colour was incorporated into the evolution of Māori cloak making.
Torr’s sculpture references the 1880s in-the-field photographic studies of Māori by the Burton Brothers as well as kākahu in museum collections.  The spectacular female costumes are immaculately constructed from cream woollen blankets. Torr deliberately chose these to stand in for muka, the prepared flax fibre of traditional Māori cloaks.  Each work references a particular type of cloak; kaitaka, korowai and ngore.  Decorative techniques mirror the way traditional weaving elements have been adapted over time, for example the decorative border on Kaitaka is needlepoint rather than tāniko.

Her blankets are salvaged vintage materials, with their own accompanying past histories – creating a connection to the conceptual basis of the NOM*d’ creative ethos.
Jo Torr last exhibited at the Whangarei Art Museum in 2004/5 in Pret-a-Porter Pasifika with works from her Gauguin and Nu’u Sila Suites.  Her work is represented in a number of major New Zealand art gallery and museum collections including the Auckland Art Gallery and Auckland Museum. The artist has just completed the William Hodges Fellowship, an artist residency in Southland, where she created new works which investigate the ill-fated 1850’s whaling settlement on the Auckland Islands in the southern ocean.
Image: 'Ngore' Image Courtesy Jo Torr.

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