Carving a new tradition

By Matt Cooney, May 1, 2006 @ 4:48 pm

‘Outer Space Marae’ is built of plastic and light. Photographs by Alistair Guthrie

These artists are on deadline. For months George Nuku, Dan Willdridge and Omeka Takiari have been creating ‘Outer Space Marae’ in Willdridge’s North Shore garage. The marae, constructed from 50mm-thick perspex, is earmarked for unveiling as part of the Pacifica Styles exhibition at Cambridge University in May. “We feel like we’re sitting on the world’s best-kept secret,” says Nuku.

Team Shed Light: Dan Willdridge, Omeka Takiari and George Nuku

So what’s the appeal of perspex—polymethyl methacrylate? The answer is social, aesthetic and cultural. First, Nuku says he wants to work with the material that we use most often. “We’re living in a plastic world and we cannot continue to have this kind of non-relationship with this material we use constantly,” he says. “Where does this material come from? What is its genealogy? The role of the art is to initiate these conversations with the people and the medium.”

And, of course, perspex catches the light beautifully. In fact, the light is as important as the material, so Willdridge has been experimenting with ways to light the marae from within. “We’re in possession of knowledge and technology that we had to make ourselves,” says Nuku. Willdridge agrees: “Nobody’s ever tried.”

“To get people to understand what we’re saying, it has to have quality,” Nuku says. “You can’t be cast as being negative or reactionary. I don’t say we’re carving this out of plastic because there are no trees.”

Tradition suggests perspex is a natural material for a Maori artist, he says. The best pounamu is treasured for the way light appears to shine through it, much like the green light that shines through an old bottle. Light is considered the purest form of energy. Light reveals the form. Parents make love in the night and the child is born into the day. When Tane separated his parents—Ranginui, sky father, and Papatuanuku, earth mother—the world came into life with light. “All of these notions are coming into play in this house,” says Nuku. “The house doesn’t have any dark corners. Everything is seen in the light. The light is meant to play a role: to dispel fear and doubt.