Cells Dividing Poster

It's funny how some people give me a lecture about my piece, and I'm months to years away from finishing it. I hope the original is still somewhere in Motueka. This piece carries serious weight in the Modern Māori Art space. Born in the creative crucible of Rotorua's Artist's Alley arts collective, it's a testament to patience, process, and layered storytelling. Months of drying time between each application allowed the work to breathe, build depth, and evolve – much like cellular mitosis itself. The theme draws from biotech research perspectives: cellular division as a metaphor for growth, regeneration, whakapapa unfolding, life force (mauri) multiplying across generations. In a Tuhoe context, it resonates with themes of resilience, land connection, and the organic pulse of whenua and whānau – cells dividing like iwi expanding, adapting, enduring. Multi-media layers (paints, perhaps inks, textures built up meticulously) create shifting perspectives that reward close looking: what appears as abstract biotech forms from afar reveals intricate, almost microscopic narratives up close. Eh cuz, pull up a chair – if you're into Modern Māori Art with real depth, this Cells Dividing piece by M J TEKA (Tuhoe) is one you need to sit with. I first clocked work like this back in the mid-2010s when the scene was shifting hard from pure revivalism into these bold, cross-disciplinary fusions. Started in 2009 at Rotorua's Artist's Alley – that raw, collaborative whare where ideas bounced off walls and no one was rushing deadlines. MJ didn't just slap paint on board; he built this thing in slow, deliberate phases over five years (2009-2014), letting each layer dry for months before the next move. That's not patience – that's ritual. The board itself becomes a living archive: multi-media applications (acrylics, inks, maybe mixed textures) stacking up like sedimentary rock, creating those impossible depths where light catches hidden forms and shifts the whole narrative depending on your angle or the time of day. At its core, it's mitosis rendered with wairua – cells dividing, multiplying, regenerating. Pull back: abstract biotech fields in pulsing organic shapes, cellular membranes splitting, chromosomes dancing in that classic anaphase flow. Zoom in: the layers reveal perspectives that feel almost microscopic, like peering through a lab lens at the building blocks of life, but infused with Māori cosmology. Division here is mauri in motion – the life force expanding, adapting, carrying whakapapa forward. Think of it as a visual karakia for growth: just as tūpuna navigated oceans and whenua to propagate iwi, these cells push boundaries, heal, evolve. Tuhoe resilience echoes loud – enduring, regenerating through adversity, much like how the whenua recovers after fire or flood. The framing (original board presentation carried through in the print) gives it that gallery-ready presence – substantial, tactile even in reproduction. Colors? Deep biological reds and maroons for the active division zones, cool blues and cellular transparencies layering underneath, subtle golds or luminous highlights suggesting energy transfer. Textures built so thick in places you can almost feel the microscopic tension. No flat digital print vibe here – the scan captures every ridge, every dried drip, every intentional pause. It's human-scaled science: hours upon hours of focused mark-making, decisions weighed like a tohunga choosing the next karakia line. For collectors, this is gold. Rare to find Māori artists tackling biotech themes with such authenticity – not appropriation, but genuine intersection. Hang it in a lab, a clinic, a whare, an urban apartment – it sparks kōrero about life, science, culture colliding. Reminds us we're all made of dividing cells, carrying ancestral code into the future. If you're chasing pieces with provenance, story, and that slow-burn power (not quick Instagram hits), this is it. Limited-run poster of the original framed painting – grab one while the edition breathes. These don't come around often. Mauri ora, MJ – respect for the mahi. This one's a keeper.