Sound installation opens at Waipapa Taumata Rau library

Musicians Allana Goldsmith (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tai) and Luc Vitk have created a three-hour sound installation that can be heard in the foyer of Waipapa Taumata Rau general library.

Sounds from the mahau of the wharenui, Tāne-nui-ā-rangi, at Waipapa Marae, the School of Music Building, gardens and offices at the University of Auckland campus can all be heard while walking through the library entrance.

Hokinga Mahi was developed as a welcoming piece for the many students who walk through the doors daily.

Waipapa Taumata Rau has an ongoing art project, Karanga, for which musicians and composers are commissioned to create a series of installations. The previous work was composed by Dr Fabio Morreale.

Vitk received a commission to remake an installation for the library foyer and decided to collaborate with Goldsmith on it.

“We only met this year and found we had a similarity of art practice and improvised sound and discovered this opportunity,” says Goldsmith.

The name Hokinga Mahi comes from the words "Hokinga Mai”, written on the entranceway of the library, inviting the return of library books and “mahi" relating to Vitk and Goldsmith’s encounter and work.

Sounds in this installation piece include various instruments, raindrops on the roof of the School of Music building, sounds of moana at Te Henga/Bethells Beach, sounds from the mahau of the wharenui on the UoA campus and the occasional words being uttered.

The instruments played include, voice, drums, harmonica, piano, hichiriki, synthesiser, khaen, and electromagnetic waves.

“We decided to connect this piece with many different places on campus which we embodied through our collaboration and sound conversations,” says Vitk.

“It’s a hustle and bustle [in the library foyer] and it’s lovely to put sound into the space . . . it’s a powerful place to have it installed.”

Goldsmith says: “There is a tuakana-teina relationship, Luc [Vitk] being the tuakana and I’m the teina in this musical sound relationship.

“Our relationship is based on whakawhanaungatanga in how we approach our relationship toward this sound installation.”

The installation will be open for the next six months, until November 20 from 9am till 3pm daily.