Ayesha Green

Biography

Image by Sam Hartnett

Ayesha Green sustains a provocative engagement with processes of reproduction. She utilises mimicry and copying to undermine the authority of symbolic objects, questioning the authenticity of their claims to power.

Ayesha Green (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu) is a contemporary Māori Artist. Born 1987 Ōtautahi Christchurch, she lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Working across painting, drawing, and sculpture, Ayesha examines histories of Māori and Pākehā representation, often questioning the particular ‘truths’ or myths they perpetuate. Her practice co-opts culturally loaded images from the history of Aotearoa—by the likes of Benjamin West, Isaac Coates, Marcus King, and Gordon Walters—and breaks them down to their pictorial elements, drawing attention to the systems of power that bestow them with value. Through subtle acts of mirroring and repositioning, she upends the supposed stability of images and their claims to a collective identity.

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Works