Tūranga Exhibitions
Find out about the current exhibitions at Tūranga, and what's coming up.
Te Pito Huarewa / Southbase Gallery located on Tuakiri | Identity, Level 2 houses exhibitions that reflect the cultural identity and history of Christchurch and Canterbury.
Current exhibition: Just to Have You Adore Me – A Dance Film for Wharenui Harikoa (1-30 March 2025)
Come and see a special dance film shot inside the joyful and vibrant Wharenui Harikoa exhibition, which is currently on show at the Canterbury Museum Pop-Up, 66 Gloucester Street.
Artists Lissy and Rudi Robinson-Cole spent three years creating Wharenui Harikoa, which translates to ‘House of Joy’. Made from 5000 balls of brightly-coloured yarn and crocheted by hand, this full size wharenui (Māori meeting house) is a vivid fusion of traditional whakairo (carving) patterns and neon wool. Lissy collaborated with contemporary dance artist Jack Gray to capture the wharenui through the medium of choreography and film. The dance explores themes embodied in Wharenui Harikoa, including intergenerational healing, tūpuna (ancestral) connection, joy and aroha (love).
Upcoming exhibition: Like bodies, like minds - True Stories about body image and mental health (12 April to 2 June )
Like Bodies, Like Minds celebrates stories from eleven brilliant bodies of survival and struggle, and of hope and healing. In sharing these, we hope to reduce shame around mental health and body image and increase understanding of life inside someone else’s skin. Being judged by our outsides — our abilities, orientations, size, and ethnicity — affects our insides, and how we think and feel about ourselves. But there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to exist in our bodies and minds, and the project encourages people to look at one another, and our own bodies, with gentle eyes and zero assumptions.
Created by writer, Angela Barnett and illustrator, Ruby Jones
Supported by the Mental Health Foundation, YWCA Auckland, and Christchurch City Council.
