Artist: Agata Christi
Materials: Wooden box padded outside with canvas, laid out inside with black fabric, painted with acrylic paint on canvas, inlaid inside with artificial pearls
$570
Matariki is an important constellation associated with the providing of food. In my artwork I combined three essential plants during the period of Hikumutu - Winter Solstice: Manuka, Kawakawa and Kumara-hoe, painted on a treasure-chest as a reference to a god Tupu-a-nuku, which represents cultivation from the earth.
Pearls inside the box express the literal meaning of Matariki as 'little eyes', relating to the appearance of the beautiful jewel-like cluster of nine stars.