These vividly coloured hei tiki lollipops by artist Wayne Youle are made from synthetic resin. They appeared in an exhibition called 'Plastic Māori' at the NewDowse gallery in Lower Hutt in 2009. Curator Reuben Friend said the slang term 'plastic Māori' 'refers to a Māori person who is culturally uninformed, but pretends to know their stuff. The show looks at the issue of cultural authenticity in contemporary Māori art, and plays with these ideas of artificial identity and fabrication.'
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by Wayne Youle
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