Nathan Pohio - Departure Lounge
April 26 - 17 May 2001

Departure Lounge looks towards mixing Art, Documentary film making and contemporary Maori society within the context of a study on Non places.

A discussion on contemporary Maori society is fitting when held in a non Place, it is an urban space where groups of people are related not by traditional means, it is also a highly democratic space where cinematic Language lends itself most fittingly as it is an international language.

The soundtrack includes clicks and beeps from a cell phone given to the artist by his sister, mixed with digital recordings of airplanes and flight Announcements, an electronic voice found at a text to speech web site narrates the writings by Bensemia also found (and lost) on line. Family movie footage is also added to the mix showing the artist and his young nephew, filmed by the artists' mother discussing what a WAKA is taught to be in public schools (another place we should consider when thinking of contemporary Maori society). A plane, car, boat, we can also add to this list a space shuttle, Pohio is looking for the day when, maybe, one day, an apparatus for teleportation can further extend the idea of what may also be referred to as a WAKA. For Pohio Ideas such as hegemony and assimilation are left behind as western obsession's defining what the can eyes see, without noting what the heart feels, by turning his back on such western concerns Pohio re-claims and de-colonizes a very important factor in all life, the mind.

Thinking for himself he wont even bother with melting pots for they cannot Sustain life's rich flavors.

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