Young Guns Reloaded: Evaluating Contemporary Māori Art of the 1990s

Abstract

The “Young Guns” were an emerging generation of contemporary Māori artists in the 1990s. Their work was irreverent, and provoked uncertainty and controversy regarding its relationship to the genealogy of customary and contemporary Māori artists. This paper reviews notable works by Shane Cotton, Michael Parekowhai, Lisa Reihana and Peter Robinson, and their evolving critical reception, from complex readings through an internationalist, post-conceptual lens to accommodation within a vitalist Māori framework. The focus is on patterns of re-evaluation within Māori culture, whereby humour, belligerence, profanity and mundane materiality are mixed with the metaphysical, and “rubbish” becomes valuable art or taonga.