A Contour Map at Headland Sculpture on the Gulf

Landform by Veronica Herber

A simple but effective installation consisting of 1,850 meters of paper masking tape held in place by 4,000+ wire staples created by Veronica Herber was one of the most successful works in the biennial Headland Sculpture on the Gulf in 2015.  It stops you in your tracks, and engages you in looking at a "landform" selected by the artist that you would otherwise casually walk by, without taking any particular notice.  The application of swirling white bands along the curves of a gentle hill call attention to the contours of the land and the history of its use.  The white lines suggest the measuring and mapping carried out by explorers, the inventories and surveys taken by developers.  What used to be here? What plans are underway for the future of this place?

The site is reminiscent of typical hills and vistas seen on the North Island in New Zealand, where the shape of the terrain was first revealed when the land was stripped of trees by loggers and the bush was cleared for farms and ranches. Now vast fields are used for grazing sheep; New Zealand is home to millions of sheep, three for every human inhabitant, is the rumor.

When the field was cleared, one lone tree was left standing off center, perhaps spared to offer shade to a lone shepherd.  What will be its fate?

Of course, I am just spinning my own associations.  Herber describes her approach to art as process-based, and, when you think about it, affixing the tape to the ground in enormous concentric circles must have been an intense, iterative process, like planting fine seeds or mending fault lines:

My practice is based on an interest in process and materiality, I combine this with the chance element of site specific work. The site itself determines the starting point and the ensuing conversation.

The material I have been exploring for the past two years is masking tape. Over time I have developed a masking tape webbing that has qualities of camouflage and the ability to shapeshift its way from surface to surface transforming spaces and ultimately itself.

When becoming deeply engrossed in materiality there is a stripping away of meaning and a possibility of direct experience with the material....To stop myself getting bound up in the short-term gain of visual aesthetic rewards, I always go back to the material itself and seek the answers there.

 

More information about Veronica Herber: www.veronicaherber.com
More information about Headland Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island, New Zealand: sculptureonthegulf.co.nz/

Crossed Wires at Headland Sculpture

 

Off in the distance -- Crossed Wires by Sharonagh Montrose and Helen Bowater

Part of the biennial Headland Sculpture on the Gulf, Crossed Wires is a collaborative piece combining sound and sculpture.  It consists of four wooden elements that suggest the tops of telegraph or telephone poles buried deep into the ground.  We have the perspective of birds in flight on four sets of long suspended steel wires anchored to each element.  Although the sound component actually plays through hidden speakers, the viewer enjoys the illusion that these wires are carrying the sounds, delivering them to the wooden posts from some faraway and mysterious place.   As you walk closer to each wooden crossbeam, composed sounds -- operatic singing, muffled talking, music, and the sounds of nature -- become audible.  As you move away from each pole towards another, the first sounds fade into the background, and a new composition -- faint at first -- becomes dominant.  When you stand in between two poles, you can hear two distinct, conflicting recordings interweave -- like  overlapping radio stations, or a telephone call gone awry, mixed up with the sounds of another conversation caused by crossed wires -- hence the title.

The work becomes interactive; visitors change their position to adjust the sounds that they hear, moving backwards and forwards to create and embellish a tapestry of sound. The recordings have the magical quality of something happening far away, beamed around the world or across time. One cannot help asking, where are the sounds coming from?  The first telephone call transmitted across the Atlantic via undersea cables was a miracle in its day.  Is this sculpture connecting us with echoes from the past, the sounds of the dead, a civilization buried under the ground? Or are the sounds merely from a neighboring island or a village down the road?   Is the headland haunted, or are we eavesdropping on the cell phone signals filling the air around us?

Headland Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island, NZ

Field Apart by Angus Muir and Alexandra Heaney

Headland Sculpture on the Gulf is a biennial outdoor sculpture show that winds its way through one of the most dramatic and scenic settings possible: the shoreline cliffs, hills and valleys of the magnificent headland sheltering the small harbor of Waiheke Island, just a 35-minute ferry ride from Auckland, NZ.  It was founded in 2003 by the Waiheke Community Art Gallery to "inspire and challenge" New Zealand artists as well as offer people an opportunity to experience art in the Island's gorgeous landscape.  Over the years they have added an outdoor pavillion that hosts music and offers local wines and superb food, including the best sorbet I have had in my life, crafted from apricots and black currents grown on Waiheke.

Target by James Wright

The exhibition's narrow walking trail begins with oversized steel arrows -- most falling short of their target, but one a bull's eye.  I heard that this work has an underlying humor: the artist -- James Wright -- applied many times for this exhibition without finally "hitting the target" and having his work accepted.  The number of arrows embedded in the ground = the number of times he missed the mark with the selection committee.

But I also like to think of the giant arrows as "you are here" markers run amok, and love the contrast of that honed and deadly point with the inviting  scenery surrounding it.  In fact, it made me a little nervous, that some giant might let loose another shaft while my back was turned, on my way towards the next stop.

There were 31 works on display of varying quality, but overall the exhibition offers a wonderful experience.  It isn't easy to design a sculpture that holds its own in a landscape of this scale (without resorting to visual jokes as with Target) and that is durable enough to withstand the elements as well as the actions of thousands of visitors -- 45,000 in 2013, according to organizers.  I also prefer pieces that feel integrated with the landscape, as opposed to merely placed there for people to see.  And if the work can connect with the history, meaning, social use, or cultural context of the site, so much the better.  But three works that I loved simply intensified my enjoyment of being in such a beautiful place: Field Apart by Angus Muir and Alexandra Heaney, Landform by Veronica Herber, and Crossed Wires by Sharonagh Montrose (sculpture) and Helen Bowater (sound).  There is a short post here about each one.

A yawn is just a silent scream for coffee

View of the vineyards at Ascension.

On a roadtrip from Auckland, NZ we stopped to have dinner at Ascension Osteria, a local vineyard's restaurant that serves delicious food -- complemented by their own wines -- in a lovely setting.  Ascension is just down the road from the town of Matakana, which looked like a charming place when we drove through on our way to dinner.  So the next morning we headed back to get a closer look at the town and have breakfast.  We chose The Black Dog from several good looking options.  The Black Dog served up an excellent version of poached eggs with traditional sides of roast tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms, enhanced by flavorful little quinoa cakes with herbs and chopped veggies mixed in.  And of course, a great cup of coffee, as one would expect from the message scrawled on their chalkboard: "a yawn is just a silent scream for coffee."  An excellent way to start the day!

We were not visiting Matakana on a market day, when there would have been lots of organic veggies, fresh bread, honey and homemade jams and local crafts on hand.  But there was still a market presence: a complex of laid-back stalls and nicely designed outdoor seating tucked behind a building filled with alluring retail stores. You can still get delicious baked goods and more good coffee while browsing locally made clothing and accessories.  

Colorful textiles designed by Ingrid Anderson and printed in New Zealand, available by the yard or by the hat.

A high point:  a booth of colorful hats and patterned textiles made in New Zealand designed by Ingrid Anderson.  Her son and a friend were staffing the stall, one of them wearing my favorite: a floppy sun hat boldly emblazoned with monarch butterflies.

You can see more of Ingrid Anderson's fabrics and work at www.iatextiledesign.co.nz
More information about Ascension Osteria's menu at: www.ascensionwine.co.nz