The Cooper Union
Samuel Taber-Kewene
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Samtk8421@gmail.com
917-406-3910



A creation myth of a creation mythMay every binary digit, every block of code that channels an image aid this untruth as it finds its next.

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14-05-2025
Canvas, charcoal, paper, lazer cutter, acrylic, digital manipulation, rotoscoping, videowork, foley, cut paper, audio recordings, oil paint, lighting.

Raukawa started at a moment between chance and fate during a visit to one of my ancestral grave sites in New Zealand winter of 2025. As I happened across the gravestone of a non-family member, I noticed that incised on the stone was the name of a character from an old Māori story my father used to tell me. What followed this encounter was a rabbit hole of research as I relearned the legend through internet forums and archive sites. What obsessed me was not the story itself but the travel of it, the journey it was able to take through signification to re-enter my body. A truth (or a narrative for that matter’s) dependence on its receiver to exist also means that for a truth to travel, it must conform to the internal assembly of its receiver before being passed along again. Raukawa is self-referential retelling of the narrative that aims to remythologize it in its deliverance. The work is a synthesis of old traditions and symbols combined with contemporary expression. The animation references itself as not only a compound of accounts but also mediums in their telling of the myth. With the help of Pablo Navarro, we were able to transform oral retelling into the instrumental backing track, combining traditional Māori instruments with contemporary electronic means that flex with the medium and plot. Raukawa is another step in aiding the travel of myth, and so is every cognitive recipient it comes into contact with.