Kahu Aute: Te Kore, 2026
Thi Vaihū (Ngāpuhi, Ngati Whatua Ki Kaipara, Waikato Tainui, Tonga) is a kiriaute, or Maori barkcloth practitioner. Vaihū grows, harvests and processes aute from Te Henga, Bethells Beach, New Zealand.
Thi’s current work is an ode to process and seeks to expand connections to community, Te Kore (the great primordial chaos of nothing) and whakapapa. Thi’s practice is preoccupied with the re-remembering of traditional techniques of maintaining pa aute as well as the processing of aute, muka, paru dye and whenua pigments. The works set out in this portfolio span three separate collections created over the last four years of Thi’s kiriaute explorations.