By teaching me their art, they honoured me.
(Sappho ca 600BCE)
Lesbian art celebrates lesbian being, and being lesbian; it is an art thousands of years old, an art that spins and paints and sculpts through countless generations; it is an art of memory, of pain, of awakening, of joy.
Most of all, it is an expression of community and resilience; through our art, and its endurance, through our making it, we remind the world that we are here, that we will never go away ... though we may, indeed, change.
This exhibition rejoices in that change; in the many fluid dimensions of our world. Aotearoa New Zealand, in our geographic isolation and unique mix of peoples, offers an interesting opportunity for questioning, confrontation, healing, and reconciliation. The indigenous populations - collectively termed Māori - are more aware of this than most others on these islands, as we watch values shifting, resources exploited, and entire communities transform. The arts have been a crucial factor in our survival; transformation has been on our terms.
Similarly, lesbian art is about transformation on our terms, as it records our experiences, as it marks our endurance as a community. It also reinforces our connections to each other, across time, across cultures, across distance, across languages; like sport, art asserts our joy in our humanity. It strengthens our links, our being, together.
And it endures, ake tonu atu.
Whirinaki whirinaki tatou katoa, kia kotahi ra!
Lean all together, share strength, be as one!
(Tuini Ngawai, 1943)