Louie Zalk-Neale is one of 14 artists, makers and designers exhibiting in How to make a home, a show exploring the small universe of home and the material politics of the objects and adornment we live with over time. We asked Louie four quick questions about their work in the exhibition and what makes a home, read their responses below.

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Objectspace: Can you briefly describe the material and making of your works in How to make a home?

Louie Zalk-Neale: My art practice is led by tī kōuka – NZ cabbage tree – a taonga plant that’s treasured as a source of fibre, food and rongoā, and as a tohu in physical and intangible navigation. Pāraerae (sandals) are often made from tī kōuka because of the strength and durability of their leaf and fibre. I’ve made five pairs now, refining the process and using different techniques. The two pairs in the exhibition are made from boiled green leaves and fallen brown leaves, and the miro (string) lacings are also made from tī kōuka. The fibre extraction process is quite different to harakeke — it involves scraping the leaves against a board with a toki (adze) or anga (shell) to remove the flesh that holds the fibres together.

OS: Can you share some of your thinking behind the works?

LZN: Exploring the connection of tī kōuka to the moana has been a fertile area of my practice. It comes naturally; many of my artworks end up looking like sea creatures.

Jordan Davey-Emms describes the connection to the sea here:

“Zalk-Neale’s mahi also utilises tī kōuka as a joining medium, bringing their own body into relationship with other bodies and environments, often in the context of performance and wānanga. Their mahi draws on tī kōuka rope’s resilience in salt water and its visual likeness to features of human and aquatic bodies to explore concepts of fluidity and whakapapa. Zalk-Neale’s woven and twisted adornments reference fins, fishing lines and spines as well as salty hair and umbilical cords with many latching ends.” 1

The names of the atua in the titles – Ngai-kore-tua-mao (many climates) and Rewa-taha (many soils) – are tūpuna in the whakapapa of the tī kōuka retold by Hohepa Delamere (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui). These atua gifted the tī kōuka the ability to adapt and thrive in different climates and soils.² Our tūpuna figured out how to harness these abilities by transforming the leaves into pāraerae, which transposes the ability onto the wearer’s body. The pāraerae allow the wearer to walk almost anywhere, including rough, sharp, rocky terrain such as reefs and alpine routes.

I was also inspired by the atua Ngai-kore-tua-mao and Rewa-taha because neither of them reproduced, which Delamere likens to childless aunties and uncles who still have meaningful influence on their mokopuna. There’s a big overlap here with takatāpui and queer people and the roles we have in our whānau. It’s important to understand that whakapapa is not exclusively about bloodlines.

OS: How do you feel your work connects to domestic spaces and/or the way we adorn and dress them?

LZN: Pāraerae made from tī kōuka were once a familiar object in daily life. They’re made as protection, allowing us to navigate otherwise inaccessible places for travel, collecting kai, and generally expanding the reach of our bodies. Pāraerae are the ara whakawhiti, the bridge between domestic spaces. Taking them off at the door indicates the journey that has been made.

OS: How to make a home posits that what makes a home is the persistence of ‘things’ that inspire us to feel like we belong. Can you tell us about an object that has made, or does make, your home a home?

LZN: Blankets do this for me. They retain the warmth and the cosiness of the people in the whare. They’re like a home within our home, a cocoon, or they can even be used to build a whare, as my three-year-old loves to do.

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More about Louie Zalk-Neale

Louie Zalk-Neale (Ngāi Te Rangi, Pākehā) is a trans takatāpui artist based in Ōtaki. A close bond with the tī kōuka (cabbage tree) guides their art practice, which involves forming taura (ropes) and aquatic taonga to activate in performances. Zalk-Neale’s taura tether gender-fluidity to the transformation and shapeshifting seen in pūrākau Māori, reinforcing a vision of queerness as an indicator of healthy natural and cultural systems. They have presented projects with organisations including Govett-Brewster, Taipei Performing Arts Center, Māoriland, soft shell (Te Tuhi), Artspace Aotearoa, and Performance Art Week Aotearoa. As a 2024 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard Award recipient, Zalk-Neale’s mahi toi is supported with mentorship from Mataaho Collective artist Bridget Reweti.

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¹ Jordan Davey-Emms, “Soft Shell - Taura”, https://tetuhi.art/soft-shell-taura/ 1

² This whakapapa was retold by Hohepa Delamere (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) and published in the pukapuka Dancing Leaves: The story of New Zealand’s cabbage tree, tī kōuka by Philip Simpson (2000, Canterbury University Press).