Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art is a landmark survey exhibition at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. It celebrates the dynamic, ever-changing expression of contemporary Māori art and is the largest show in the gallery’s history, featuring over 300 artworks from 111 artists. We were tasked with designing the identity for the exhibition across two sites; the gallery and the satellite exhibition at Britomart.

Our approach was to reflect the unique Māori curatorial framework of the show. The shows curatorial framework is based on the Māori creation narrative. Rather than using conventional Western chronology to organise the works, Māori celestial origins become the organising idea. Privileging these Māori concepts of time and space, the show’s title becomes an interwoven time scape. An infinite, ever-changing pattern that spills out of the gallery and draws us into the Māori universe.

The words Toi Tū Toi Ora repeatedly chant their way through the gallery space and out into the world. Proudly affirming the meanings within – Māori art stands strong and in good health. The titular typeface has straight edges, but also warps and bends in mythical ways to reflect the straight lines of Māori woven art forms, as well as the organic curves of carved art forms.

Artwork images are placed into this typographic matrix, linking all our artists together within the whakapapa of the Māori universe. Being a survey show, we used a wide and diverse range of artwork images, in place of a single hero image. Care was taken to ensure an inclusive balance of male and female artworks were paired and equally represented.

Shifting between black and white, the colour scheme reflects the extremes of the Māori creation narrative – moving from darkness into the world of light, echoing the many dualities within Te Ao Māori.

All design materials are bilingual – a first in the gallery’s history.

The identity was rolled out across a wide range of applications including invites, brochures, booklets, a large format newspaper, posters, billboards, flags, exhibition merchandise, ads, physical kiosks and environmental graphics at the gallery and at Britomart.

Alongside the identity design for the exhibition, we were tasked with creating a physical experience for Toi Tū Toi Ora that could travel throughout the Tāmaki Makaurau region to raise awareness for the exhibition and bring a more diverse audience to the show.

We created a cube that houses a multi-sensory light and audio experience taking people through the Māori creation narrative. The exterior carries the exhibitions identity with large abstract crops of gloss black lettering against a matte black wall finish. Inside, a soundscape and voiceover recites the many stages of Te Kore (the great nothingness), Te Pō (the perpetual night), and Te Ao (the world of light).

The voiceover is bilingual and the chants echo throughout the 2x2.5 metre interior. To accompany the audio, the typographic pattern created for the identity lights up behind one way mirrored walls, highlighting the different stages of the creation narrative in time with the audio. The light show within is multi-coloured. Throughout the one and a half minute experience, colours shift in tone and energy based on the characteristics of Te Kore, Te Pō and Te Ao. To further emphasize these celestial origins, all interior walls are mirrored to immerse the viewer in an ever-expanding world of interwoven text and light.

The experience was rolled out across festivals and events throughout Central, South and West Auckland and was accompanied by gallery staff who spoke to the exhibition and had exhibition collateral to hand out to the community.

The exhibition catalogue Toi Tū Toi Ora that tells the story of contemporary Māori art from the 1950s to the present day, with more than 200 works by 110 Māori artists. From carving to painting, video art to jewellery, body adornment to weaving, this is a powerful expression of the vast creativity and diversity within Māori art, linked across time and place through the Māori creation story and revealing profound connections to whakapapa, to whenua and to the spiritual world.

Every work is illustrated in full colour and described in illuminating captions that are bilingual in English and te reo Māori. A beautiful foreword by Moana Jackson and the author's informative introduction share the history of contemporary Māori art within a kaupapa Māori worldview. These are supplemented by a comprehensive chronology of contemporary Māori art by the exhibition's assistant curator Taarati Taiaroa, and detailed biographies for every artist, written by expert curators and art historians.

The book’s design is a continuation of the exhibition’s identity. Strong typographic patterning creates an instantly recognisable cover and the typesetting within expands on the exhibition type styles.

The pricing strategy was to make the book as accessible as possible by aiming for a conventionally low price point of $60. A key challenge was achieving a high level of design finish within these tight cost parameters. Additionally, every school in the country received a free copy of the book offering a major resource on toi Māori to our country’s future generations.