Large-scale Lightship artworks set to dazzle Auckland visitors
A series of specially commissioned works will be showcased at The Lightship, Australasia’s largest public art wall, opening on Thursday.
First Light explores experiences of arrival, belonging and connection through the eyes of six artists over the next year, with Nova Paul (Te Uriroroi, Te Parawhau, Ngāpuhi), one of three wāhine Māori artists, launching the season.
“My work is very often place-based,” Paul said before the launch. “I think about the relationship to the land and the stories that come from the land.”
As a film-maker, Paul is always looking to bring together themes of language, the land, the stories of the ancestors into a “beautiful alignment” in her work.
With this piece, shot on 16mm film, she features the first landing place of Kupe at Motairehe on Aotea/Great Barrier Island.
“When I think of first light, I think of Kupe arriving [in] Aotearoa, of seeing the cloud and seeing the land for the first time,” she said.
The film, 110m across and 13m high, appears on the side of the car-handling facility on Bledisloe Wharf through 8500 LED lights.
Paul uses the light dancing from water flowing through a net, creating a shimmering, flaring image stretched and distorted through enlargement.
“The kupenga [net] is a really important taonga for Aotearoa and Moana-nui-a-Kiwa [Pacific Ocean],” Paul said.
“The way the rhythm of the water flows and it’s undulating back there, it gets quite confusing, and it looks like the water is reflecting back on to the building.
“It’s perfect for Ports of Auckland when we’re thinking about our relationship with the water.”
Simon Bowerbank, curator of The Lightship, says arrival is one of Aotearoa’s defining experiences.
“First Light asks what it means to arrive in a place - physically, culturally and emotionally.
“Each artist approaches those ideas in a unique way, creating works that speak to whenua, whakapapa, language and ecology while offering audiences new ways of seeing Auckland’s waterfront.”
Paul says First Light is not just about coming and going at the port but is also about kai moana, wellbeing and other aspects of traditional knowledge.
“A simple little gesture like this can weave in all those different stories.”
First Light is on at Bledisloe Wharf from dusk to dawn every day from Thursday.
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