From the MTG: Art reflects life's journey in Philippa Blair work

South Island Cloak, 1985, by Philippa Blair. Collection of Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi.

Closing last week at Auckland City Art Gallery was an exhibition that ran across the entire building, providing an amazing representation of Māori artists.

Many of the artists in Toi Tū Toi Ora were from Ngāti Kahungunu - Fiona Pardington, Toi Te Rito Maihi and Jade Townsend to name a few.

Seeing these women representing at a national level brought to mind some of the wonderful work we have in the Hawke's Bay Museums Trust collection by female artists.

Also, this week Ngāi Tahu were in the news in relation to the Government's proposal for a partnership with the iwi regarding governance of water assets in Te Waipounamu. Traces of both these ideas are seen in this work from the collection, South Island Cloak by Philippa Blair.

The work was made in 1985, the same year landmark legislation empowered the Waitangi Tribunal to investigate land claims back to 1840. Prior to this, the scope of the tribunal was limited to grievances occurring after 1975. The following year, 1986, Ngāi Tahu were in the headlines when the iwi made one of the first major land claims in the country.

The 1980s saw the Māori movement gain political momentum and Māori expression in mainstream visual arts, film, theatre and literature blossomed. Likewise, the feminist movement in the 1970s and 80s saw art as an opportunity to give women voice, and supported woman artists.

Through these decades, many artists in Aotearoa New Zealand responded directly to contemporary political concerns.

Hailing from Ōtautahi in Christchurch, Blair would have been aware of Ngāi Tahu's settlement claim and may well have been expressing her empathies and allegiances in this painting.

Perhaps in the context of the week's politic, it is possible to bring too much to a work made some 35 years ago and South Island Cloak is more open to interpretation than it is dogmatic, with Blair wanting viewers to bring to their own experience to its interpretation.

Blair's oeuvre also favours the autobiographical, reflecting her interest in processes that involve intuition and gestural mark-making, evidence of the movement of her body.

The influence of her friends, travel and experiences are also evident in the work. The impact of her tutor Rudolf Gopas seen in Blair's colourist approach, and tutor Don Peebles in its sculptural form.

South Island Cloak also contains traces of Blair's travels to London, where she experienced an exhibition by indigenous Canadians and North American artists. Later, in 1981, Blair travelled to the United States and was able to study more intently the shape of the Indian tipi, which she began to incorporate into her "off the wall" structures.

Reflecting a quite different era, this work shows a more flippant appropriation of cultural motifs than we might see these days. However, throughout history, Western art has been innovated by the ideas of other cultures and this work is a fabulous example of that. The roots of abstract works like South Island Cloak can be traced to the non-figurative style of art that began in Islam.

Blair shows us that she clearly saw there was much to learn from indigenous ways of doing things. It may indeed be fair to say that the arts, more than most other sectors, synthesises values and concepts of diverse culture within its development.

• Toni Mackinnon is art curator at MTG.