Building on earlier research-based projects in the field of architecture, Raukura Turei responds to the Objectspace foyer by acknowledging its function as an entrance and transitional space.
Working with terrain that spans embodied knowledge, the built environment, and indigenous conceptions of land and space, for this exhibition Turei employs the analogy of the female body as a vessel to reflect the interconnectedness between body, land and building as direct counterparts of one another.
Drawing in particular on a parallel between the body and built space, Turei’s inquiry accentuates the function of the gallery threshold as a site of translation and exchange. In doing so, Turei gestures to an embodied understanding of space which is mindful of the social and cultural complexities that are present at the meeting point between our own body and that of others.
Raukura Maria Turei of Ngaitai ki Tamaki and Nga Rauru-ki-Tahi descent is an artist, architect, spatial and performative practitioner currently based in Toronto, Canada.