Te Ao marama
Ngarimu

Waiheke-based artist Te Ao Marama Ngarimu has worked with flax for over ten years, fine-tuning the art form of weaving and falling in love with its diversity along the way.

"My passion for weaving runs deep. There is an obsession with the fibre, when you work with flax you become quite intimate with it and with your art form."

Growing up in Gisborne and seeing the nannies weave sparked an interest that saw him enroll in a Craft and Design Course at Hawkes Bay Polytechnic. This involved work with 14 mediums including flax; whose patterns were the most resonant with Maori culture.

Ngarimu's weaving incorporates colour and texture and apply secondary materials such as lace bark to enhance their appearance. His wall hangings can take up to twelve months to make and the preparations even longer through a careful process of harvesting, sizing, boiling, drying, and then softening the flax. He enjoys the rhythm of weaving kete, the act he finds therapeutic, "once you're away, you're away".

Accompanying his latest cloak, Pake Hukahuka, Ngarimu wrote:

Falling heavenly,
teardrops of rain,
shelter me my cape,
comforted within, I am
embraced in your warmth.