Kiri

Kiri is a collaboration with clay artist Paerau Corneal and is informed by the whakapapa of uku (clay) and the creation of Hine-ahu-one (the first woman formed from earth). With Kiri the texture of our skin is likened to that of a landscape - the skin being the biggest organ of the body and clay being the skin of our planet. Kiri is a work devised with the whakaahua dance practice known as Kiri tai / Kiri wai.


“A stunning collaboration between Louise Pōtiki Bryant, dance artist, and Paerau Corneal, clay worker, on the subject of skin, the whakapapa of clay itself and the creation story of Maoridom's first woman, Hine-ahu-one, opens Tempo 2014 in great style…Bryant’s lithe, beautiful and deeply expressive body tracing the evolution of rock, through water, to clay and, in Corneal's strong hands, the female form. She perfectly embodies a host of ancient spirits and totems throughout her one-hour movement marathon, and when Corneal steps forward to coat her in another layer of, this time, reddish clay, surrenders but still exquisitely articulates the subtle intent of the unmitigated substance itself. Paddy Free's score adds an immeasurable meaning to the action, gurgling and flowing, crashing and cracking in what becomes a mesmerising and inseparable dance between the ever-changing light patterns, designed by Bryant, the sound and the physical arts of two women.”
Bernadette Rae, The New Zealand Herald, Oct 2014