Mangere Art Gallery

The Mangere art exhibition we went to was pretty fascinating. That was the first art gallery I reckon was the best I've seen lately in south auckland. The exhibition was interesting because one of the artists that had their work up was someone that use to study here in MSVA just like me now and seeing his art work as well as listening to him speak about it was very motivating and inspirational. The place was very nice and well put together, it could be just the same as the exhibitions in town I would say. Stepping foot inside the Mangere exhibition/gallery was as if I was at the galleries in town instead of Mangere and thats how awsome I think it was.

I think the artists at the Mangere art gallery are all trying to get the locals who live in Mangere involved by making art recommended for them. Most of the work I saw there were based on cultural designs or art that represent culture and as we know.. Mangere is a place full of polynesian people and the population of locals there are mostly polynesian. So by making artwork related to our cultural well-being, the artists of the Mangere Art exhibition are all doing it not for money but for the community of Mangere and the rest of south auckland whoever takes interests or desires to get involved. So the expectations I think from the artists are for everyone to get involved with the art world also known as part of the polynesian culture we are all connected with.

What I think the artists are trying to say through their artwork is depending on what their work is about. Say for instance, one guy there did drawings on the wall of random people from the community and presented them to us. So I think he is relating his work to the community saying that we are all family somehow or that we are all cultural people, no-one is different we are all the same and to not forget our roots or where we're from. So thats what I thought about his artwork and thats the how it affected me as a young artist also polynesian. In some other way I actually thought to myself that some of the artwork there were related and recommended especially for the youth age of our polynesian people a.k.a teenagers just to get them off the streets and avoiding that street violence we are all against. Thats another reason why I think the gallery is in Mangere.

I think the idea of the three different elements collaborating together is something very powerful. The reason why I think this is because they are all people who know other things about different things they've learn't and together they could have a very tight bond with each other. One side of the gallery could be doing something and the other two sides could be doing their own thing separately. This way the gallery would have different sections with different type of artwork for the community.

I wouldn't have a clue of how to describe the different sets of visual and philosophical values that are presented but in the gallery they made visual works for those who would be interested in them and their values. Philosophical values are a crucial part of the exhibition because of the studies of the artist and why the artists are there. People might want to know the investigation of the art princlples from the artists knowledge and what they know, how they came up with the idea. So I guess thats What I think about both visual and philosophical values.