Kinetic Fungi Tower, 2017
grape vines, fungi and pole
9,000 x 1,500 mm
A kinetic celebration of the greatest recycler on earth: fungi.
As the fungi eats the vines the stone slowly moves to the ground.
– Chris Booth
Chris Booth wishes to thank the Waiheke vineyards who donated material for this project: Hay Paddock Wines, Kennedy Point Vineyard, Mudbrick Vineyard, Passage Rock Wines, Te Motu Vineyard, Tantalus Estate and Te Whau Vineyard and especially thanks the volunteers who helped to create the artwork.
Supported by Waiheke Aborist and Tree Care.
Te Rerenga Wai ō Tīkapa Moana – The flowing waters of Tīkapa Moana, 2016
Turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera), pāua shell and stain
eight parts, 7,000–4,000 x 170 mm diameter each (variable)
The flowing waters of the Hauraki Gulf are known by my people as Tīkapa moana ō Hauraki.
Just as those waters flow in and around these islands, I invite you to move in and through this installation.
Often with artwork we are asked to not touch the work, but to view it from a “safe” distance, likewise many will view often Māori culture from an observer’s perspective, from a position of ‘safety’ rather than engaging and immersing oneself in it.
This work is intentionally placed near a pathway, unavoidable and inviting that engagement with the Māori cultural narratives that it talks of. I believe that understanding manifests itself through engagement.
These narratives talk of rangatiratanga, honouring past and present leaders, guardians, tohunga, intellectual and spiritual ascension, enlightenment through education and the birds reference guardianship of the land and wairua whenua.
– Chris Bailey
Te Tumu, 2016
Basalt
2,300 x 2,000 x 1,600 mm
‘Te Tumu’ is literally a stump or foundation in Maori, and is often used to describe a strong leader or the ‘pillar’ of the community. In the context of Waiheke it is also reminiscent of a tuahu or stone alter. Such tuahu were built by the first Polynesian seafarers to make a claim on the land or to offer thanks to the gods for safe passage. The work is a reminder of the original occupants of the islands and a homage to Ngāti Paoa.
Commissioned for Hamilton Boys High School, to commemorate the artist Horace Moore Jones.
Myopia, 2017
weatherproof steel and aluminium 4,700 x 170 x 170 mm
Myopia explores the idea of the spatial implications of the immediate and the remote. It articulates the familiar and the unfamiliar, both intimate and distant. At eye-level Myopia is engaging and accessible, there is an invitation to approach, enabling close inspection and acquaintance.
Stretching into the sky, Myopia, at its highest point is unattainable, impossible to get close to. This duality of distance, the near and the far, states we are either here or elsewhere and expresses a desire to avoid the middle at all cost.
– Anton Parsons
