Kihikihi
Kihikihi (For the Taonga)
This moving image and sound installation by Māori artist Jamie Berry carries the voice of the cicada through the exhibition. From Central America to Aotearoa, cicadas mark time, return, and continuity. Here, their sound moves across the gallery as a form of accompaniment. The work was created so the taonga gathered in this space would not sit in silence, but remain surrounded by familiar rhythms and vibrations, as they would be at home. Cicada song travels between land and body, between past and present, carrying memory without words. As the sound drifts through the exhibition, it connects distant territories and invites visitors to listen differently. This is not background audio. It is a gesture of welcome, ensuring that the works, and the worlds they come from, are held in relation, resonance, and care.
ARTIST
Jamie Berry
Kihikihi
Moving image and sound installation
Kihikihi is a multimedia soundscape and moving image work presented within an exhibition curated by Armando Perla, drawing from their Indigenous collection from Central America and selected work from Aotearoa. From Kuskatan/El Salvador to Aotearoa, the cicada is a sacred being — a shared tohu of time, renewal, and spiritual continuity across Indigenous cultures.
The kihikihi signals raumati, endurance, a messenger, the intensifying voice of the land. In Central American Indigenous cosmologies, cicadas also hold ceremonial and spiritual significance, marking cycles of rebirth and continuity. Kihikihi becomes the meeting point of these Indigenous worldviews.
The work weaves DNA-derived sound, cicada chorus, summer night air, pīwakawaka calls, and echoes of mōteatea into portals of Indigenous thinking, where nature is alive and time moves between past, present, and future. Kihikihi honours a shared Indigenous knowing: the land speaks, and we listen.
Mōteatea -vocals by Matt Berry and kihikihi