Music, visual art and kōrero combine for a special live session with Taylah

Loop is proud to continue supporting one of Aotearoa’s most exciting emerging artists, Taylah, who first captured audiences through her appearance on Fly My Pretties 7.

The vision has been to grow Taylah’s audience through collaborations with some of Aotearoa’s leading contemporary Māori visual artists, creating work that sits at the intersection of music, art and culture. This latest release continues that journey.

Loop is excited to present a special live performance of Taylah’s Descendant, filmed within Brett Graham’s acclaimed exhibition Wastelands at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

This release forms part of an ongoing four-part Live Session series that features Taylah with Māori artists and their work. Each episode sees Taylah perform one of her original songs, using significant artwork as the visual backdrop.

The first video released was Soft with art from Lissy & Rudi – neon crocheted wharenui, Wharenui Harikoa installation at The Civic. The second video of the series release was Loved, with art from Lissy & Rudi, Messini Palace, Raukikini, Stacey Moana Smith, Feona Pula, and Hikurangi Edwards.

For the third video, Taylah performed her song Descendant before Graham’s monumental installation Wastelands. Taylah’s latest Live Session is accompanied by an intimate conversation between the two artists, exploring the ideas that connect their work from whakapapa and identity to environmental guardianship, cultural resilience and the responsibility each generation carries for those who come after.

The collaboration was born after Taylah encountered Wastelands during a walkthrough of the gallery. “I just remember walking into that space and being absolutely taken by it,” Taylah says in the accompanying interview. “Its scale gives it this majesty. It completely stopped me in my tracks.”

For Graham, the connection between the song and the artwork was immediate. Reflecting on the lyrics of Descendant, he speaks about the Māori understanding that ancestors continue to walk alongside us, describing the waiata as carrying the strength and stories of those who came before.

Written during isolation, Descendant emerged from Taylah’s reflections on her own whakapapa and the generations whose lives made her own possible. Throughout the conversation, she discusses reconnecting with her Māoritanga, acknowledging both the privilege and responsibility that comes with being tangata whenua, and how that journey continues to shape both her life and songwriting.

The discussion also reveals striking parallels between music and visual art. Graham explains that Wastelands is not only a reflection on raupatu and history, but an environmental work centred on whenua, waterways and the health of Aotearoa’s ecosystems. Through imagery of wetlands, tuna and fire, the installation considers the relationship between cultural survival and environmental stewardship, inviting audiences to engage with multiple interpretations rather than a single narrative.

Together, the artists reflect on the importance of preserving and evolving Māori culture, recognising the work of previous generations while embracing the responsibility to create a stronger future for those still to come.

The conversation concludes with a shared belief that creativity is inseparable from identity, that storytelling through music, art and performance is simply what Māori have always done.

Taylah’s emotionally charged performance of Descendant transforms the gallery space into a meeting point between contemporary music and one of Aotearoa’s most significant contemporary artworks, creating an experience that celebrates connection to ancestors, to whenua and to each other. The Descendant x Wastelands collaboration with Brett Graham is the third instalment in the series, following two previous collaborations with Māori artists and their works. One final video remains to be released, completing the collection.

Together, the four videos form a broader body of work celebrating Māori storytelling across artistic disciplines, creating space for artists to reflect on their individual practices while revealing the common threads that connect them.

The project will continue beyond the film series, with Taylah set to go into the studio to re-record each of the songs featured throughout the Live Sessions, bringing them together as a new EP. While the Live Sessions capture the intimacy and atmosphere of each performance, the forthcoming EP will give the songs a new life as a recorded body of work.