COVID 19

VERANOA HETET
Cotton
250mm (W) x 210mm (H)
Not For Sale

Taaniko has been such a part of my life since I was a child.  I saw it being woven. I saw my mum graph patterns and create from those patterns.  I saw Mum create Taaniko without the use of patterns marked out on graph paper. They had been such a part of her life as well.

Taaniko was the very first thing I learned to weave as a young teenager. 
Taaniko and me have been close friends for over 40 years. 

I know Taaniko patterns.  I know them so well I can weave them from memory. I know the meanings of the patterns and where to best use them. The patterns are such an integral part of my minds makeup. 

But one day I realised that my mind was being consumed with another pattern. The Vaccine Pass.  I needed it to get into places I wanted to be. I needed to scan at doors and windows of places I wanted to enter. It became such a vital part of my visual mind-scape that Taaniko was being overtaken.  It was being eaten into by this new pattern.

Traditional Taaniko patterns were being diluted by the pattern of Covid. I had a panic moment. What if these are the patterns my mokopuna feel are a part of their mind-scape? What if the dots and dashes of Vaccine passes become their norm, as Taaniko was my norm when a child? 

So I wove Taaniko being diluted, being eaten away by Covid 19