One thing New Zealand does well is fine art and this Sunday I had another uplifting experience when I visited the NZ Sculpture on Shore held at the Fort Takapuna Historic Reserve at Devonport. It was organized by the Auckland Council and was held in aid of The Women's Refuge. I loved it.
I heard about it on Facebook from my friend William Dart who had attended the opening. Dart is the editor of Art New Zealand and I trust his judgment as although I love fine art I am no expert. In this field I need to be led.
I made up my mind to go and I was not disappointed. The weather was perfect, NZ at its best and so was my viewing.
The slide show below gives a taste of what I saw. The exhibits were imaginative and thought provoking. One especially actually moved me and this I shall share with you.
Down in a corner was a pohutukawa tree. For non NZ er's this is known as the NZ Xmas tree because it is covered with red flowers but this time it was covered and I mean covered with tiny tin kiwis, thousands of them that made a tinkly sound in the wind. At the bottom were again thousands of bright red tin kiwis that one could walk through.
It was so childishly pretty and a host of onlookers admired and enjoyed the pretty sight until somebody got out the catalogue! Each tiny tin kiwi represented a child killed through violence and abuse over the last century. The tree took on a somewhat different personna.
It was sad and so moving. We all stood in horror. I can say honestly that this was the first time a sculpture actually moved me almost to tears.
You can see the tree at the end of the slide show. It does not photograph well. It looks better when you can see it moving and tinkling. I have a video and will put it up later as it needs editing to do the works justice.
I thought the most appropriate music was Mahler - The Songs of Dead Children.
The exhibition runs for another week. Well worth the $15. For once it seems I can congratulate the Auckland Council. This is the way rates should be spent.
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