Peata Larkin

  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
  • Ka Mau, Ka Ora
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Ka Mau, Ka Ora, 2026
Laser-cut stainless steel and corten steel

2400 x 3000 x 3304mm

Ka Mau, Ka Ora invites viewers to step inside an architectural expression of raranga (weaving). Its four structures suggest the form of a whare, creating a passageway to walk through. Moving beneath and between the patterned panels, viewers become part of the work.

The sculpture honours Hineteiwaiwa, guardian of Te Whare Pora (the house of weaving) and atua of childbirth and the creative realms of wāhine Māori. Larkin approaches Te Whare Pora as a state of being as well as a physical space, drawing on ancestral raranga and tāniko patterns that carry knowledge. Honouring her whakapapa is central to her practice, in which personal and collective stories find expression through contemporary forms.


The repeated structures evoke Aramoana, a pathway to the sea or a body of water, while forms referencing kaokao offer a sense of protection. Curving lower sections recall strands of harakeke being prepared for weaving, umbilical cords and the contours of the female body. These references connect weaving with childbirth and the continuation of life.


Reflective stainless steel offers fragmented, shifting glimpses of the viewer, contrasting with the weight and evolving surface of corten steel. For Larkin, the corten acts as a punga, an anchor, balancing the reflective lightness of stainless steel. Openings draw the gaze towards Ranginui, the sky, while sunlight casts patterns across the body and Papatūānuku, the ground. The work brings weaving into a bodily experience, inviting viewers to feel its wairua and aroha through their own movement.

 

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Ka Mau, Ka Ora
Ka Mau, Ka Ora
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Ka Mau, Ka Ora
Ka Mau, Ka Ora

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Artist Bio

Peata Larkin (Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Tūhourangi) lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Born in 1973, her practice spans painting, sculpture and architectural works, exploring connections between Māori knowledge systems and contemporary ideas about abstraction, science and the natural world.

In her paintings, Larkin builds tactile surfaces from repeated raised marks, creating patterns that bring to mind tukutuku, knitted grids and digital code. She carries this interest in pattern and structure into her sculptural work. Ka Mau, Ka Ora, for example, draws on weaving and the idea of knowledge held and carried forward. Visitors are invited to move beneath and through the work, experiencing changing light and shadow.

Larkin completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, in 2005 and a Master of Fine Arts at RMIT University, Melbourne, in 2008. In 2018 she received the Kaipara Wallace Arts Trust Award, including a three-month residency in Solothurn, Switzerland.

Her recent exhibitions include Silent Kōrero at The Arts House Trust, Pah Homestead, Auckland, and the Aotearoa Art Fair 2026 with Two Rooms,. Her public commissions include works for the New Zealand International Convention Centre, The Red Square in Tauranga, and Auckland Lightpath. Her work is held in public and private collections in New Zealand and internationally, including the Chartwell Collection, Memphis Museum of Fine Arts, The Dowse Museum, Pātaka Art + Museum and the Wallace Arts Trust Collection.