Title: Koura Taniko
Medium: Acrylic on plywood board

Status: Original Artwork
Dimensions (cm): 40 wide by 60 high
RRP:  $850

Koura (Gold) Taniko is inspired from a taniko pattern.

Taniko is a uniquely Maori variation of whatu (twining) and is used to weave the colourful, intricate borders of cloaks. In cloak-making, tāniko is used only for borders since the weave is too stiff to suit entire garments.

Taniko is also used to make pari (bodices), tīpare (headbands), tapeka (sashes), tatua (belts), and taonga whakapaipai (jewellery).

About the Artist

Sheree has always loved to paint and her artworks reflect her love of colour, geometric design and her cultural heritage.

Sheree is of Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne and Pākehā descent. Her Māori heritage was, and remains, important in both her life and in her art.

After leaving school Sheree studied Contemporary Māori Design at Wellington Polytechnic. It was there that she was honoured to have her designs selected to decorate two frosted glass panels for the doors of the No1 Court in the new High Court building then being built in Wellington.

Sheree is passionate about the patterns of tukutuku which are the woven wall panels seen in whare tipuna, or meeting houses. Her work is a contemporary expression of negative-positive design elements of customary patterns evident in tukutuku (cross stitch weaving) and taniko (geometric weaving). Old or new, these patterns each convey different meanings, mythology and experiences. 

Sheree has strong memories from her childhood of the tukutuku at the marae where her grandparents’ tangi (funeral) was held. It was an occasion where she had, perhaps for the first time, a strong sense of belonging and cultural identity

Sheree’s paintings are not exclusively based on tukutuku and tāniko but they are the inspiration for her current body of work.

www.shereewillman.com