Mars Cook was behind the light installation on Auckland Harbour bridge for Auckland Pride and has been coming to Toi Ora since he was 14.
What did it mean to you to create the light installation for Auckland Pride?
This project was something that aligned with several of my favourite things. Multimedia, public artwork that commemorates an important event in Aotearoa’s history, for all – but especially for queer, gender diverse and takatāpui people.
I believe strongly that art belongs in public, so to be able to do a work on such a massive scale, in such a public space was amazing.
The chance to create a six-minute soundtrack to accompany the visuals meant I could develop skills I’ve gathered from my experience as a DJ/musician, as a drag performer, and an animator, all in one. I’ve described the bridge show as ‘putting the harbour bridge in drag’.
How did you come involved with doing the light show for Auckland Pride?
I got to know the Auckland Pride team through a photoshoot, and spending time doing rangatahi leadership for Kick Back, which is down the road from the Auckland Pride office. They got to know me and my work, and I expressed an interest in collaboration. In October the Pride team reached out to me, and I pitched my concept to Vector Lights.
I encourage every artist who is interested in collaborative work to reach out to others and to expand their ideas of what they’re capable of.
How did it feel seeing your work out in the world, especially on the 40th anniversary of the homosexual law reform?
It was amazing. The passing of homosexual law reform in the 80s is something that was a long and hard fight to get. Because of work activists and advocates and members of our community put in, I got to grow up in a society where locking people up for having consensual sex seemed ridiculous. The fight for liberation from a narrow Victorian English idea of sexuality, sex and gender is shared among so many different causes such as tino rangatiratanga for tangata whenua, trans rights, rights for sex workers, and the fight against AIDS. Homosexual Law Reform saved many lives, and I am grateful to my rainbow elders, many whom are no longer with us. I will continue sharing this story, because we have a long way to go, and knowing how difficult the fight was will inspire us to have hope and determination.
Tell us a bit about your time at Toi Ora?
I first came to Toi Ora when I was 14, and I attended the youth programme until it wasn’t funded anymore. I came back last year at age 23. Toi Ora provides classes, equipment, space, and community that addresses mental wellbeing in a hollistic way, strengthening the walls of our whare tapa whā.
Is there any moments you can pinpoint that stand out from your time at Toi Ora?
I remember how impactful being in the youth programme was for me. I was a kid with undiagnosed neurodiversity, trauma, a difficult home life, experiencing social isolation, and I was labelled as mentally ill and difficult. The Toi Ora tutors provided me with patience, knowledge, kindness, and practical support to expand my artistic practice and express myself. One of the tutors in the youth programme was an older person who was gender nonconforming, and that made me feel so much more at home as a trans kid.
Being part of the Toi Ora community means meeting interesting and kind people, having a routine, and a place I can go 5 days a week whenever I need a mood boost. It’s a place where I can fully be myself, where I don’t feel at all insecure about being neurodiverse or disabled.
Did you see changes in not just your creative skills, but in your growth as a person during your time at Toi Ora?
Absolutely, I’ve been able to use going to Toi Ora classes to get guidance on projects I’m involved in, to meet artists who I collaborated with in the Front Door Dialogues exhibition, and to have more structure in my week. Attending screen printing every Monday definitely helped me with my top surgery recovery last year, on an emotional and physical level.
What’s next coming up for you creatively?
I’m now in my first semester at AUT school of art and design, I’m so excited to make more connections with people, have more access to material I want to research, and facilities to develop my creative skills – especially expanding on my hard materials skillset. I’m wanting to do more public artworks this year, Write even more, collaborate with more people and organisations, and as always, add new mediums to my tool belt.
