Installations

Laughing No More

Created for Kaipara Art Trail - 2015

This sculpture is a reminder of what humans have done to change the landscape with no regard for the other creatures we share this world with. Laughing No More is the ghostly remains of the Whekau or Laughing Owl, an extinct native New Zealand Owl that once inhabited our country. The white empty nest is a reference to the habitat destruction that led to the demise of this ground dwelling bird. Hopefully we can both mourn it’s loss but learn from our past mistakes and with knowledge, education and wisdom, we can prevent other species from sharing the Whekau’s fate.

Pop up Light Symphony

Created for the “White Night “ during the Auckland Art Festival - 2015

Pop Up Light Symphony was designed as an interactive light display where members of the public could play with the lights and create patterns or chaos. This interactive sculpture of light was a great success and at one point a crowd of over 100 people had gathered to be part of this fun filled evening.

Consuma Pods

Created for Kaipara Art Trail - 2016

Consuma Pods are an imaginative way of dealing with the waste products of our consumer society. Little creatures that roam the countryside feeding on discarded bottles, tin cans and other rubbish that careless people have thoughtlessly thrown away. Through this sculpture I was highlighting the need for our consumer driven culture to take care of the waste we create and the need to find new ways to recycle.

Future Trees

Created for Harbour View Sculpture Trail - 2016

Designed as an environmental crowd participation installation, my inspiration was to highlight the need to plant and protect native trees from introduced, invasive species. The work was designed so that people could walk around my protective circles and imagine old growth trees living there and be inspired to protect them. Once we recognise this need we can then work towards eliminating the threat posed by the invading species and our imagined trees will become Future Trees.

Pisces memorandum

Created for Kaipara Art Trail - 2017

I built this installation as a reaction to my disgust upon seeing reports of New Zealand fishing companies catching huge amounts of fish, then dumping at sea the dead remains of anything not in their target size or species! What a waste! This profit first attitude is so short sighted and could lead to a world where there are no fish in our oceans. I am reminded of a Native American saying that rings so true; “When the last tree is cut, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realise that one cannot eat money”.

Apartmentalisation - Apartments for birds

Created for Kaipara Art Trail - 2017

This installation was a creative way to address the housing needs of our feathered friends as our own need to build more houses encroaches into their traditional habitats in rural and forested areas. Birds have been shown to be quite adaptive to living in urban environments finding ways to nest and live in our suburbs and cities, so why don’t we build them their own apartment blocks.

Bird Party Pods - Apartmentalisation II

Created for the “White Night “ during the Auckland Art Festival - 2017

Bird Party Pods are a continuation of my concept of birds living in apartments in our cities due to habitat loss, but instead of slum like crowded buildings, as in Apartmentalisation, Party Pods are for the more discerning birds who would like to live a more affluent lifestyle. As humans party the night away in our cities, so too can the the more sophisticated of our feathered friends.

Zen-membrance

Created for Art on the Shore - Fort Takapuna 2021

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

This installation was created to show how a state of Zen can easily be turned into Chaos. This is particularly poignant for this location as it was here that the New Zealand defence forces were on the look out for potential Japanese invasions. Now that the chaos of war is a distant memory, this location is once again a peaceful park or a Zen space.

Cone be Free

Created for Art on the Shore - Fort Takapuna 2025

There seems to be a plague of cones on our roads, kilometres of them and often for no reason. Is this over “coning” of our roads creating a new form of pollution? In the area where I live, for two years an area on our main road has been “coned” and there is no activity of roadworks or construction. For a country road it is visually disturbing and distracting. They have become orange, visual pollution. They are never tidied up or kept in order, many have fallen over, been run over, fallen in ditches, and they are now becoming plastic pollution. One has even made it to the top of a Norfolk pine tree! Will they be retrieved and used again or will they contribute to the plastic pollution in our environment?

This has got me thinking. Have these cones taken matters into their own hands? Have they been forced to stand on the roadside with their silver bands of slavery for too long? Have they finally decided to clean up our roads themselves by escaping their enslavement? Are they finally ready to be free? They remind me of battery chickens, pigs in pens or feed lot cattle held captive to satisfy our needs with little though to their mental wellbeing.

But how are they managing to escape? Are their silver bands of slavery coming loose or have they been deactivated? Are motorists helping set them free or are they making a run for it on their own? By the way, congratulations, to the cone who managed to get to the top of the tree. That was some feat!

I think in the future to reduce the visual pollution on our roads, that cone sanctuaries will need to be created. These sanctuaries will be a save space where freed cones can live out their days and maybe, have some little “conlings” and be one with nature. I am therefore hoping that Fort Takapuna with its natural setting could one day become one of these cone sanctuaries.

Say no to Slavery!

Free the cones!