Visual guide to Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn

A step-by-step visual guide to help you plan your visit to the Ahi Tāmau: Māreikura Whakaahua | Slow Burn: Women and Photography exhibition.

This guide has information about seating, flooring, light and sound levels, accessible toilets, and shows photos of the spaces in Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn.

Jump to a specific gallery

Main entrance to Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn

Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn exhibition is in the back galleries of Toi Art on Level 4.

There is low lighting and uneven, reflective concrete floors throughout the exhibition. Shoes may echo on the hard floor. There are low, slatted ceilings in places.

2 low, cushioned, crushed velvet armchairs with rounded half backs next a small touch screen on a low round table atop a round rug on hardwood floor. 5 bright screens are mounted on the back corner walls. The exhibition name Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn is in uppercase purple and red letters coloured against a chartreuse rectangle. The screens and seating are under spotlights causing strong shadows.

Main entrance seating in Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn. Photo by Maarten Holl. Te Papa (278129)

There are 2 entry points to the back galleries, either side of the Leslie Adkin exhibition.

The screens at the entrance have changing images and a soft soundtrack.

The Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn exhibition starts at the main entrance, in the Rere Ao | Joyriders gallery. There is a downward sloping floor at the main entry point.

A slight downward concrete slope opening out into a photography gallery space with shiny, reflective concrete floors and varying light levels. 4 artworks from Joy Riders are visible in the background.

Shallow slope entering Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278745)

There is low lighting and an uneven, reflective concrete floors throughout the exhibition. Shoes may echo on the hard floor. There are low ceilings in places.

All exhibition labels are in te reo Māori and English. Some exhibition labels are in other languages too.

Large language label guides in wall-mounted acrylic dispenser next to bilingual exhibition label.

Whakahua Porotū | Photography as protest exhibition label and large language label, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278746)

Rere Ao | Joyriders

Signs at the start of each room are lit from behind.

Yellow exhibition label with purple lettering. Photographs of teenagers are visible in the background. The left photograph shows 3 girls relaxing on a suburban playground. The right photograph is a side-on view of 2 boys in school uniform walking on a footpath. The nearest boy is wearing a black jersey and a pink backpack.

Rere Ao | Joy riders exhibition label, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278754)

Photographs are lit by spot lights throughout the exhibition.

Some photographs hang on hollow walls, with empty space behind them.

A gallery exhibition space with low lighting and shiny, reflective concrete floors. A hollow wall structure is in centre frame, with white, ladder-like struts and chartreuse panel siding. The camera shot points in between wall struts, creating an optical illusion of rectangles inside one another, decreasing in size the further they are from the viewer. Photographs are visible either side of the hollow wall mount. Left of the wall are close-up images of the lower half of a young girls face while she eats lollies and blows a bubble of bubble-gum. Right of the wall, a digital screen plays a video of a protest rally in support of Iranian women at a Cuba Mall.

Hollow wall mount in Rere Ao | Joy riders, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278752)

Please do not lean on these structures for support.

Rere Pō | Night Hawks

The Rere Pō | Night Hawks gallery is on the far left of the entrance to the exhibition space, next to Rere Ao | Joyriders.

Photographs in this gallery contain nudity.

Purple sign with yellow lettering showing entrance to Night Hawks exhibition space. Visible and out of focus in the next room, a wall-mounted photograph showing 2 nude men doing the cancan. They are wearing necklaces which resemble life size heads and blend into their pale skin tone.

Rere Pō | Night Hawks entrance, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278751)

There are 2 shiny reflective artworks behind a low wire barrier.

Do not touch these, it will permanently damage the artwork.

Two naked men in dancing pose holding onto each other and wearing masks at torso height suspended from their necks. Red curtain backdrop.

2 artworks in Rere Pō | Night Hawks, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278749)

There is an orange lighting strip along the edge of the floor.

There is a projector room in Rere Pō | Night Hawks. A strobing projector plays a 20-minute video with no dialogue in a dark room.

Camera points into a dark, carpeted projector room, with purple and lilac walls either side of the entrance. Visible on the projection screen is a close-up of blurry hands holding un-ripened fruit, in front of a fruit bowl.

Johanna Mechen, Last Skye Boat Song, 2023, Wellington. Purchased 2025. Te Papa (2025-0009-1), 2026. Photo by Maarten Holl. Te Papa (277136)

There are couches to sit on inside the projector room.

Low lit room with black walls containing 2 couches under a projector hanging from the ceiling.

Projector room couches, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278795)

Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies

The Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies gallery is next to the Rere Ao | Joyriders gallery.

A wide gallery space with shiny concrete floors and low lighting. A blue sign on the out-jutting centre wall has the exhibition label “Hāngaru Tupuna | Ancestor Technologies” in yellow letters. To the right of the exhibition label, 9 images in square frames with thick white borders hang in a 3 by 3 grid.

Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies 2026. Photo by Maarten Holl. Te Papa (277207)

Large print language labels are at the start of each gallery space. The label colours match the feature wall colour in the room they are from.

Large language labels in wall mounted acrylic dispenser next to an Ans Westra artwork. The photograph depicts a home interior after a fire- a green couch sits amid the devastation and soot covered windows distort the view of the outside world.

Ans Westra, 32 Highbury Road, 2001. Purchased 2013. Te Papa (O.040409) in Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278744)

There are QR codes on some exhibition labels. You are welcome to scan these with your phone.

Bilingual exhibition label and QR code next to wall-mounted photograph of a white rose. The surface of the work is embossed with transparent braille.

Conor Clarke, Parnell Rose Garden (described by Rhonda Comins), 2020. Purchased 2024. Te Papa (2024-0025-1). Installation view, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278741)

The artwork Parnell Rose Garden by Connor Clarke is embossed with transparent braille. This is a photograph you can touch and listen to.

Scan the QR code to hear the audio description of the artwork by Rhonda Comins.

You can also access the audio description directly on SoundCloud.

There are bright screens throughout the exhibition. Most wall-mounted videos have no sound.

Sage Rossie-Tong, My Body Is My Vehicle #16, 2022. Purchased 2025. Te Papa (O.052337); Becki Moss, Stay Home Club, 22 March 2022, New Zealand. Purchased 2023. Installation view, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa.

Sage Rossie-Tong and Becki Moss in Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278755)

Another projector room is to the left of Parnell Rose Garden.

Corner of an art gallery with low ceilings, white walls and concrete flooring. Left of frame, furthest from the viewer, is an entrance to a dark projector room with black walls. A photograph of a white rose is centre frame, and a low cushioned bench is against a blue wall on the right.

Projector room entrance in Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278753)

The projector screen is behind a wall with an exhibition label in Farsi and English. The booklets next to the exhibition label are bilingual Farsi and English transcripts of the film.

Walk around the wall to see the projection. There is a gentle slope on the left side path.

A dim corridor with black walls, black curtains, and carpeted sloping floor. A sign close to the ground reads “Watch your step, low light with uneven floor”. A Farsi, English and Māori exhibition label is on the right wall, next to film transcript booklets in a dispenser, closest to the viewer. A green exit sign hangs from the ceiling.

Corridor to projector room in Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278793)

A couch and small, moveable stools are available to sit on. Curtains are along some of the walls.

Couch and 3 round, cushioned, moveable stools in a dark, carpeted room with black curtained walls.

Projector room seating in Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278794)

The video projection includes audio narration.

There are Farsi subtitles during the English narration and English subtitles during the Farsi narration.

Projector and projector screen in a dark room. The projection shows a video with Arabic subtitles. The video is shot from the bottom of concrete stairs beside an inner city fern garden, wedged between buildings.

Selina Ershadi and Azita Chegini, Amator (still from video), video art, 2019, Purchased 2023. Te Papa (2023-0006-1). Installation view, 2026, Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa. (278796)

Anamata | The Near Future

The Anamata | The Near Future gallery is next to Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies.

A back-lit, wall-mounted exhibition label shows where the next gallery starts.

Backlit purple and peach signage marking The Near Future gallery entrance in yellow lettering and purple Reo Māori exhibition description next to it. The previous Ancestor Technologies gallery is visible and out of focus in the background.

Entrance sign to Anamata | The Near Futures gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278736)

This gallery has low cushioned benches to sit on. Some benches have narrow, metal arm rests.

A gallery with low ceilings and concrete floors. There are floating display cases, open photo albums in display cases on raised plinths and a low cushioned bench with thin metal armrests.

Seating in Anamata | The Near Futures gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278732)

There are hanging shelves and reflective, concrete floors.

Image of the corner of a gallery with white walls and concrete floors. Wall-mounted display shelves hang over empty space as if they were floating. An open album is in the floating display case closest to the viewer. A cluster of 4 Sara McIntyre photographs are on the wall farthest from the viewer. The colour photographs depict 2 interior spaces and 2 exterior places in rural Taumarunui. Each photograph has a wide, white borders and white frames.

Hanging shelves in Anamata | The Near Futures gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278737)

This gallery includes raised display cases, with empty space underneath. The transparent display cases reflect the light.

Back entrance to a gallery with low ceilings and concrete floors. Photograph albums are in display cases on raised tables. A low bench is in front of a large photograph approximately 180cm by 180cm in a silver frame occupying a purple accent wall. The photograph is a heart shaped map of the world made from close-up images of a human tongue cut and pinned to a backing board.

Ruth Watson, Lingua Geographica, 1996. Purchased 2009. Te Papa (O.032417) in Anamata | The Near Futures gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278791)

Mobile guides

You can exit and enter Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn by walking through the Leslie Adkin exhibition.

A corner between gallery spaces. Text on the right blue wall reads “Leslie Adkin” with an arrow pointing right. On the left purple wall, text reads “Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn” with an arrow pointing left. There is a scannable QR code linking to exhibition mobile guides, a hand symbol with a cross through it with the text: “Kaua e raweke | No touching” and a symbol made up of 3 curving lines to represent human hips and legs with the text: “exhibition contains nudity”. A large floor to ceiling black and white photograph of a person in a spotted dress holding up a mirror in front of their face. The mirror reflects the photographer from the waist up. The photographer is in front of a large window holding a camera and wearing a spotted dress and a hat.

Alternate entrance and exit to Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn, from Leslie Adkin gallery to Anamata | The Near Futures gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278729)

On the wall, there is a QR code to scan. It will open the mobile guides on your device so you can hear 4 artists talk about their work in the exhibition.

You can also use this link:

Slow Burn mobile guide

Toilets

A white, rectangular archway leading to Slow Burn gallery space. A green exit sign is above the archway. To the left, a sign with a toilet and a wheelchair symbol is above a corridor leading to gender neutral toilets. Shiny wooden floors reflect small lights hanging from the ceiling. 4 photographs with wide white borders hang on a purple wall between the viewer and the wheelchair accessible corridor leading to the toilet.

Entrance to Anamata | The Near Futures gallery from Leslie Adkin gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278792)

There are gender neutral, accessible toilets between the Leslie Adkin exhibition and Anamata | The Near Future gallery.

Entrance corridor to gender neutral accessible toilet. A sign with a toilet and a wheelchair symbol is right of the white corridor. To the left of the corridor, 4 small, square photographs with wide white borders hang on a purple wall.

Entrance corridor to gender neutral accessible toilet between Leslie Adkin gallery and entrance to Anamata | The Near Futures gallery, 2026. Photo by Rowan Moulder. Te Papa (278731)

We hope that you enjoy your visit to Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn.

If you have any questions you can call us on +64 (04) 381 7000, or contact us using this form.

We look forward to welcoming you soon.

Slow Burn: Women and Photography
Slow Burn showcases the diversity of photography by women and non-binary artists in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1960s to today.
On now
Sat 28 Feb 2026
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Toi Art
Fresh takes and new favourites. You’ll find them in Toi Art – the home of the National Art Collection.
Discover new artists, get creative in the family-friendly Art Studio, or spend time with a favourite artwork.
On now
Long-term exhibition
Exhibition Ngā whakaaturanga
Visual guide to Toi Art
A visual guide for the Toi Art galleries, which are on Levels 4 and 5 of Te Papa.

Visual guide to Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn

Jump to a specific gallery

Main entrance to Ahi Tāmau | Slow Burn

Rere Ao | Joyriders

Rere Pō | Night Hawks

Hangarau Tūpuna | Ancestor Technologies

Anamata | The Near Future

Mobile guides

Toilets

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Toi Art

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