PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Christchurch

The Union Jack has appeared often in Hotere's work. Here it is defined in a simple graphic format. The name Union Jack is thought to have evolved from the term 'jack' which denotes a small national flag traditionally flown at the bow of a warship. Whether or not this is in fact the derivation is unclear - in naval terms, however, and for Hotere, it is a name and an image that is associated with conflict and war. This is the context in which Hotere has consistently used it. If we look back to the first Sangro paintings and to Winter Landscape, Sangro River from 1963 (a work now held in the collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery) there is the same segmentation of the canvas into the pattern of the British flag. The Sangro works are a lament for Hotere's brother who was killed in action in World War II and is buried at the Sangro River War Cemetery in Italy. They are works commentating on the foolishness of war - a war fought by New Zealanders under British command. More recently, in the Jerusalem Series of 2002-4 Hotere uses the Union Jack collaged into the form of a Star of David. Two of the works in this series are titled This is a Double Union Jack and another This might be a Double Cross Jack. These are images in which the Union Jack evokes the history of Palestine as a British Mandate territory prior to the formation of Israel in 1948. Embedded within the scrawled lettering is the sense of betrayal and desperation felt by those subjected to the ensuing Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It is the same sense of betrayal that Hotere evokes with the burnt and abraded image of the Union Jack in this 1989/90 A Black Union Jack. The divisions in the upper two quadrants of Hotere's A Back Union Jack are an inscription of the capital letters NZ with the letters marked out in reverse in the lower half. The earlier Black Union Jack works were a protest against the 1981 tour of New Zealand by the South African rugby team. Hotere was a strong supporter of the anti-apartheid movement. He once stated in an interview that he had taken part in every march in Dunedin opposing the Springbok tour. For someone who has always closely followed rugby this reflected a deep political commitment. A Black Union Jack is part of the Baby Iron Series, which revisited previous themes explored in earlier work. On the back of the image, in Hotere's handwriting, is the inscription a celebration work for 1990? This was the year South Africa's then president F W de Klerk announced the government's intention to abolish apartheid and the impending release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years of imprisonment. At the time it was produced, in late 1989 through early 1990, Hotere's inscription with a question mark denoted both hope and uncertainty about the fulfilment of de Klerk's promises. The addition of the qualifier 'black' to the title A Black Union Jack plays on multiple meanings: The black of mourning, the black which is this country's national colour, the black of skin, and the black that is part of the name of our national rugby team. A few years later, in 1985 Hotere created the Black Rainbow series in which the arcing banner of a black rainbow forms an elegy for the sinking of the Greenpeace vessel the Rainbow Warrior. Hotere's powerful imagery is a heartfelt comment on two major historical events in the history of New Zealand.