In the closing weeks of Whai Wāhi, join us for a one-night-only sonic event in connection with Madison Kelly’s Heed a tohu, cradle a branch. Musicians Riki Pirihi, Ruby Solly and Hayden Afele-Nickel will perform in the gallery, where Kelly's sound installation is located.

Heed a tohu, cradle a branch emerges from Kelly’s thinking about taniwha, and an ongoing consideration of oro: the sonic vibrations by which the universe itself is sung into being. The sheet-metal cymbals that make up the installation are hammered into relief patterns using a metalwork technique called chasing and repousse. The cymbals become landscapes that are also percussive surfaces: they can be struck – gently or firmly, with care – by audience members using the mallets suspended from above.

Riki Neihana Pirihi (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Mahanga, Patuharakeke) aka Riki Gooch, lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. A multi-award-winning musician and composer, his work spans composition, performance, sound art, production, and research. Pirihi has led and conducted large-scale ensemble projects, performed in a wide range of collaborative settings, and created work for both recorded and live contexts, including galleries. The 2023 Audio Foundation Artist in Residence, Pirihi exhibited sound work that same year at Gus Fisher Gallery and the IWA Matariki Sound Installation, Auckland Viaduct; and in 2021 performed a musical response to the Ralph Hotere exhibition Black Phoenix, Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery. His ongoing projects include solo and group performances, conduction ensembles, DJ sets, film composition, and sound-based installations. Having a completed a Doctorate in composition in 2024, Pirihi is currently working on a variety of projects including: conductor and composer for Te Ātea Nui Taonga Puoro Orchestra and the Chamber Music New Zealand Ā Mua Ensemble; as a musician with Anika Moa; and composer of a film score for Womb.

Dr Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is a taonga pūoro practitioner, composer, author, and artist living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She has performed with artists such as Whirimako Black, Yo-yo Ma, Trinity Roots, and a range of improvising musicians from around Aotearoa as well as overseas artists. As a composer she has written for the Auckland Philharmonia as well as various ensembles as a featured artist at festivals such as the Wellington Jazz Festival with her work Te Kāraka o Ngā Whetu. As an author, Solly has published two books with Te Herenga Waka University Press, both of which were longlisted for the Ockham book awards, Tōku Pāpā, and The Artist. Her PhD focused on the use of taonga pūoro, traditional Māori instruments, within health and hauora from pre-colonisation, and onwards into the future.

Hayden Afele-Nickel is a Samoan violinist, composer, teacher and arts-advocate, dedicated to the accessibility, liberation and growth of pasifika arts in Aotearoa. Afele-Nickel was a CNZ Iosefa Enari Memorial Award recipient, former Artistic Director of community arts programme Arohanui Strings and a former New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Conducting Fellow. His career spans classical concert halls, pop-contemporary gigs, theatre and other creative collaborations. Afele-Nickel has shared the stage with international artists and heavy weights of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Jazz scene. He is a member of Te Ātea Nui Taonga Puoro Orchestra led by Te Kahureremoa and Riki Gooch, and has occupied the theatre stage as a band-cast member in Show do Café, Oro Māia, A Master of None: Brown Fala, and most recently, A Musical Portrait of a Humble Disabled Samoan.