embrace
‘Embrace’ is a stone circle sculptural space.
This installation was created as part of the Glen Innes Town Centre Redevelopment Project, stage one of which was a redesign of the public space in the town heart, Mayfair Place. A team of Glen Innes residents and business owners participated in the design and construction processes.
The idea for the stone circle came from Teaiivaiue Enoka, a local Cook Island elder who shared the traditions of the Cook Island marae, a stone circle where elders come together to make decisions on behalf of the community. This circle represents unity and peace for the people of Glen Innes.
At the very centre of the circle is a ring of red fused glass designed by local graffiti artist Tangiwai Haretuku, representing the fire or hearth of the community. One hundred clay tiles form a ‘circle of cultures’ perimetre around the stones. These were individually designed by children from Point England School and Glen Innes Business owners, co-facilitated by clay worker Michael O’Donnell.
300 small clay ‘stones’ were created as part of the project. They were each wrapt in a karaka tree leaf and a poem. These taonga (treasures) were entrusted to the many people who were part of the project over the two years of its evolution. In this way, the sculptural ‘embrace’ lives quietly inside the homes of members of the Glen Innes community.
2004 Community Sculpture Project, Mayfair Place Mall, Glen Innes, Auckland, New Zealand
Client: Auckland City Council
Project Team included: Tevita Tanaki, Teaiivaiue Enoka, Corrie
Temata-Fong, Danielle Meredith, Noeleen Rupapera,Tangiwai Haretuku
(design of red glass ring), Tarariki Pottery Mike O'Donnell,
Virtualight Peter Stoneham, Clare Glass Studios Dermott Kelly, Auckland
Stonemasons, Nigel Scanlan, P&M Paving and Construction, Glen Innes
Business Association, Ka Mau Te Wero, Ruapotaka Marae, Isthmus Group
and many others.
8m diameter
basalt, clay, cast glass, stainless steel, LED LIghts
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Caroline Robinson:
www.carolinerobinson.co.nz
ART WITHIN LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURE
personal and collective mythology
Ideas about place making are changing, as our society feels the torque of the unsustainable environmental pressures we have put on the earth. Added to the rise of complexity in our social and cultural dynamics, these challenges evoke a call for a deeper humanity and a more bold imagination. Being at the heart of this collective conversation is what art means to me, exploring questions about who we are, where we have come from, and where we are going.
I sculpt and build with durable materials such as stone, steel and earth, animating public and private spaces with a raw physicality and mythology. The wisdom embedded within each context inspires me, and I use both instinct and active research to draw connections through cultural memory and identity, geology, biology and the full diversity of life expressed within our physical landscapes. The engagement and enhancement of this richness is both provocative and practical as a way of thinking about the future landscapes we are building.
