All Ears (2019) by Huriana Kopeke-Te Aho & Rebecca Ann Hobbs

Produced for the Vunilagi Vou exhibition project, Finding Emory: A Poster Show (2019), this work is one of a series of seven original posters inspired by the iconic aesthetic of Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party. From the controversial trial of armed Police response units in South Auckland to the ongoing indoctrination of imposed body / faith politics, these seven artworks speak directly to shifts and changes that affected the lives of indigenous people in the South Pacific / Moana Oceania in 2019.

All Ears (2019)

Deep listening asks us to sit with some discomfort, so as to hear what we already feel in our collective guts. To do so, one must first pass the mic and flip the script, by centering the powerful voices of our sistas. Listen up and call each other into this dynamic action, so we can engage in some epic truth-telling. But first we gotta show up, stay humble and be all ears.

Huriana Kopeke-Te Aho & Rebecca Ann Hobbs

Huriana Kopeke-Te Aho is a self taught takatāpui artist of Ngāi Tūhoe, Rongowhakaata, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāi Tahu and Ngāti Kahungungu descent based in Tāmaki Makaurau. They also whakapapa to Sāmoa, Tahiti, Ireland, Scotland and Denmark. Their practice is primarily informed by their Māori whakapapa, takatāpui identity and political beliefs. They have worked with the University of Waikato, Auckland Pride, The Wireless, Pantograph Punch, Action Station and Basement Theatre, amongst others.

Rebecca Ann Hobbs has lived in Aotearoa for 14 years and is originally from Black River in far north QLD Australia, which is Wulgurukaba country. Hobbs generally focuses on collaboration to create performative artworks that celebrate dynamic bodies and their relationship with specific sites. After completing a BVA at the Victorian College of the Arts Hobbs received the 2003 Samstag Scholarship. The Samstag enabled Hobbs to achieve a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2005. More recently obtaining a DocFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts, with support from the Manukau Institute of Technology, 2018. Hobbs currently works at the Auckland University of Technology as an academic, utilising creative pedagogy to actively affirm diverse standpoints through socially located methods that are consultative, site-situated, embodied, reciprocal, experiential and collaborative.