Awakening

 Bronze and fibre-glass. 850mm long

Our relationship with the environment has many future unknowns. Like many in Aotearoa, I consider that critical change in attitudes and actions are needed to partner with nature. In my experience, any significant shift in vision most often involves risks and uncertainties, and needs courage and vulnerability to collaborate in new directions.

Our extinct huia and threatened pekapeka, tuna and tuatara are all taonga, that remind us of what has already gone, and the prospect of further loss.

The images after the Botanic Gardens sculpture are of the pre-casting forms (wax, carved wood) and fibre-glass molds. In developments, I dispensed with the shroud idea, and the man is to be seen rising in the waka, coming awake.

The waka hull has been spray-painted bronze elements patinated and painted with oil paints. My process: readings, korero, drawings, iterations in wax, carving, fibre-glass, bronze, patinas, automotive spray-paint and oil paint.