Ronnie van Hout’s artwork at Potters Park in Mt Eden, Auckland, is a massive undertaking in scale and skill.
Tell us about ‘Boy Walking’. Who is he and where is he going?
I try not to refer to Boy Walking in gendered terms, so I refer to the sculpture as an ‘it’, and think of it simply as a child. So, it’s a child that’s walking. Rather than just asking where the figure is going, the question could also be: where has it been? Movement is between departure and arrival and implies a present that’s always shifting from the past into the future. Children may relate to the work as in the state they feel themselves in (growing, experiencing). For adults, it may evoke the return to eternal childhood, which is static and nostalgic, among other things.
You say the inspiration was drawn from your 1995 ‘Mephitis’ series of black-and-white photographic prints, which is held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Can you expand on this?
This story is from the August 2019 edition of HOME.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 2019 edition of HOME.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Past Is Present
In exhibitions at public galleries around the country, artists reflect on our collective, individual and cultural histories.
Why I Walk Carl Douglas
How the experience of walking reveals our world to us and informs our sense of our place in it.
My Favourite Building Chlöe Swarbrick
Built on Auckland’s Karangahape Road in the 1920s, St Kevin’s Arcade has served as vocational inspiration and a meeting place for the Green MP since she was a teenager.
Humble Special
PAC Studio designs a home on a tiny budget in the bush above the Kaipara Harbour.
Modern Love
Assembly Architects draws on lightweight Californian modernism to craftan elegant mountain retreat.
Family Tree
On a leafy site in the Waikato, Tane Cox crafts a subtle home for three generations
LOW PROFILE
Sometimes, strict covenants can be a blessing in disguise.
Fine Line
A house in a vineyard by Stuart Gardyne shows country living need not be rustic.
Elegant Shed
Ben Daly rehabilitates a farm building with a long family history on the Canterbury Plains.
Perfect Pitch
An encampment by an inlet casually inhabits land at Tawharanui.