Up close with Brett Graham
About Brett Graham
Born 1967 in Auckland, New Zealand
Lives and works in Auckland
Sculptor Brett Graham, from the Ngati Koroki sub-tribe of Tainui, explores complex historical, political and cultural ideas, transforming them into compelling artistic statements, often witty and ironic. He works on large-scale projects in varied materials. Here he presents versions of western ‘weapons of mass destruction’, such as Te Hokioi (2008), a Stealth Bomber with its identity reformed by carved Maori symbols, as wellas a new work, Mihaia (2010): a near full-scale Russian BRDM-2 scout car. Just as western nations often appropriate the names of Fourth world peoples for their weapons, indigenous peoples have appropriated the technology of their enemies as ritualistic power symbols. A response to colonisation has been the rise of indigenous millenium cults seeking salvation, and identification with both the lost tribes of Israel and the later plight of Palestinian refuges; the BRDM-2 has been used on both sides of the Middle Eastern conflict.