An art museum has removed a work of art made up of New Zealand’s flag and has a message printed to invite the audience to go.
The artwork is a new version from 1995, titled Mark the futurein a solo performance by artists Diane Prince (Ngāpuhi, ngātiwhatua and ngātikahu) of the Sut Gallery in Nelson. The show was organized by the Pātaka Museum of Art in Porirua City, which had no such controversy last year.
In addition to printing out the logo of the word “Please be on me”, the work also includes a variety of objects. The 1995 version includes Korari, a form of ordinary New Zealand flax, Harlekke Flowers, Maori communities wove into mats, forming mats, clothes and baskets.
This week, when Nelson resident Ruth Tipu said she protested against the work every day, the prince attracted negative attention in the New Zealand media.
“When they entered the gallery, they saw our flag on the ground and it said, ‘Please walk on me’, which bothers me,” Tipu told The The The The The Nelson Post. “That’s not who we are, that’s not what we represent.
The publication reports Tipu’s Koro– Her grandfather – Positioned in the Maori camp during World War II.
After the report appeared, videos of Tipu picking up the flag began to circulate on social media, and the museum said it would delete the work. “Since the exhibition opened, marking the future has produced a wide public response,” the museum wrote on Facebook Thursday. “While many have worked well thought out and respectfully, the tone and nature of the discourse in recent days has escalated far beyond the scope of the respect debate.”
Furthermore, the museum said: “This should not be interpreted as a judgment of the artwork or the artist’s intentions. We continue to support freedom of speech and the crucial role of art in reflecting and shaping national dialogue in democratic societies.”
Flag blasphemy can be fined up to $5,000 ($2,984) in New Zealand.
Prince has used the New Zealand flag in her work before, despite the 1995 version Mark the future Still her most famous work. When it appeared at the City Gallery of Auckland that year, Prince said she intended to act as a protest against Prime Minister Jim Bolger’s administration, which attempted to severely restrict the rights of Maori communities.
“I’m not an artist,” Prince said at the time, preferring to call himself an activist. “The flag is just a protest effort that is suitable for display.”
This work is so disseminated that in 2023 Art News Aotearoa (and Artnews), author Hana Pera aoake (Ngaati Hinerangi, Ngaati Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Ngaati Waewae) said that although she claimed she had never seen it in person, even though she claimed she had never seen it in person, it was of great significance to me.
this Associated Press New Zealand police are investigating complaints about the Sut Gallery exhibition, although it did not consider any harassment.
Online, the reaction to Prince’s work splits the politicians. Nelson City Councilman Tim Skinner wrote on Facebook that he had filed a “formal complaint” with the museum. “It’s not just disrespectful,” he wrote earlier this week before his removal. “I don’t tolerate standing on any recognized national flag.”
Nelson Deputy Mayor Rohan O’Neill Stevens looked at the different views. “I understand why people react so strongly to invitations walking on the flag, crime and indignation,” he wrote on Facebook. “But there are strong invitations to explore this crime, exploring the implications of the government’s fixed price tag for generations of harm to ask if your feelings may correspond to the feeling of the government’s unilateral attempt to rewrite the treaty or ignore the system to avoid further violations.”
