Terri Te Tau

Te Ao Ngū (2017)

31 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

Te Ao Ngū translates as The Quiet Earth but not quite. Te Ao Ngū isn’t an earth that talks in quiet or hushed tones, but is silent, speechless and still—a calm before catastrophe.

Te Ao Ngū reverses an iconic moment where Zac Hobson’s (Bruno Lawrence) announces to cardboard cutouts of world leaders and celebrities that he has been condemned to be president of ‘this quiet earth.’

Are we so caught up in the celebrity and performance of politics that we can no longer hear the message? Probably. As we continue to be captured by smiles over substance, entertaining outrage over integrity the climate changes, storms shake our world, and the sea rises to crash down upon us.”

Artist's statement

Other works by Terri Te Tau

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