The Dowse will become an underwater cyberspace for a new exhibition opening  in one of the galleries this Saturday. Visitors to the Lower Hutt art museum will find themselves surrounded by shimmering waters, submerged kapahaka performers and floating fragments of email text in Rachel Rakena's stunning digital installation Rerehiko.

Image: Rerehiko digital installation, translates as electric brain and rere meaning to flow or fly.The Dowse will become an underwater cyberspace for a new exhibition opening  in one of the galleries this Saturday. Visitors to the Lower Hutt art museum will find themselves surrounded by shimmering waters, submerged kapahaka performers and floating fragments of email text in Rachel Rakena's stunning digital installation Rerehiko.

Image: Rerehiko digital installation, translates as electric brain and rere meaning to flow or fly.Palmerston North based Rakena believes "the digital text    of  the email and it's aesthetic of pixelated patterns have created the new tukutuku pattern for the wharenui of cyberspace."  

Rerehiko is based on strings of messages from emails sent and received by Rakena within the loose collective of an urban Kai Tahu community. This project follows the activities and exploits of this whanau group as it has continued to meet, both in real spaces and cyberspace, over the past ten years.  

 "Rerehiko suggests that the culture and international connectedness of contemporary iwi has been forever changed by the internet and email communication", says Dowse Programmes Developer, Maori, Debbie Martin.

"Rachael's work is cutting edge.  Just as our ancestors embraced new technologies and modernity, she has utilised and manipulated new media to create the magical environment of Rerehiko."  

The title Rerehiko plays on the Maori word for computer 'rorohiko' which is often translated as 'electric brain', and rere, meaning to flow or fly. Conversations about emotions, life, death, business, language, culture, gossip, politics, humour, panui, and information korero arrive and depart daily without ceremony, with the click of a mouse.  

Rerehiko will be on display at The Dowse, Lower Hutt from 5 February - 8 May, 2005.