“While digitality is commonly associated with immaterial modes of communication, connection and consciousness, along with the utopian possibilities that come with this, String Games proposes an alternate route through these perceptions. In order to engage with String Games deeper—on a fibrous, mineral level—we need to dwell on the connotations of its materiality and the correlations held within this materiality. Glowing as if they are electrified, the strings in String Games echo the strings that create whai—harakeke, muka—and the strings that create digital technologies—copper wire, electrons. They are one and the same, represented simultaneously.”
— excerpt from Moya Lawson’s essay “String Games” in Bulletin 212
Aho Marama Strings of Light is a magical UV light installation bringing together different art forms and histories.
For the opening of Te Papa Tongarewa in 1998, Maureen Lander (Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutu, Pākehā) used UV light, strings, video and photographs to create the phenomenal installation String Games. The work brings together customary Māori string games and stories and the conceptual art history of Marcel Duchamp, upending our understanding of both these art forms. Aho Marama: Strings of Light re-presents String Games for the first time, alongside installation components and documentation of Digital String Games II and our own collection work Wai o te Marama to celebrate the ongoing importance of Lander and her work.
