Turumeke Harrington

Turumeke Harrington, Stumped I-XII, 2024

Powder-coated steel. Courtesy Page Galleries, Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. Thanks to INEX Metals Ltd and Precision Laser Cutting.

The Auckland isthmus was once home to large swathes of kauri and conifer–broadleaf forests. Between 1870 and 1900, they were intensively cleared, making kauri timber and gum the region’s top exports and forestry its largest employer. Accounts from the time recall the smell of gum and new-sawn timber hanging in the air. Consisting of laser-cut cartoon-like ghosts of tree stumps scattered across the hillside, Stumped recalls this history. Turumeke Harrington’s installation is a portrait of a landscape tamed, harvested for profit and to make way for the urban life we live today. While visitors enjoy their stroll on the headland, Harrington reminds them that ‘nature’ once looked very different. 

Turumeke Harrington (b.1992, Kāi Tahu) lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. In 2011, she gained a Bachelor of Design Innovation from Victoria University of Wellington; in 2018, a BFA, from Ilam School of Fine Arts, Ōtautahi/Christchurch; and, in 2021, an MFA from Massey University, Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. Working at the intersection of art and design—and interested in whakapapa, space, colour, and material—she creates both large sculptural installations and lines of artist-branded commodities. She has shown at Christchurch Art Gallery; Tauranga Art Gallery; Dowse Art Museum, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai/Lower Hutt; Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Ngāmotu/New Plymouth; and Pātaka Art+Museum, Porirua.