Hoarding library

Gabby O’Connor worked with the team at Otari Wiltons Bush to collect and document native plant samples that would have been found in Wellington before European settlement. This research included Cook Strait Mahoe, wetland species, ferns, trees and shrubs.

Foliage samples were illuminated on lightboxes and photographed to amplify their structure, patterns and colour. O’Connor then overlayed the photographic images to create a collage, slicing through some and making geometric shapes from others. The outcome is an abstract, leafy montage, that will envelop a space in luminous green.  

Regreen symbolically reinstates the original Wellington plant-scape through a process of imaginative decolonisation. By researching, recording, collaging, illuminating and photographing the lost chlorophyll, ecology and ecosystems of the concrete landscape that the city now occupies we can imagine how Te Aro might once have looked.

"When I first moved to Wellington in 2001, I remember vividly how ‘extra green’ the landscape was, even in Summer compared to Australia. I recall describing the colour as ‘vibrating my retina’, and this colour experience is something that I play with throughout my practice—the visual experience and activation through colour. How colour commands our attention, soothes us and sometimes infuriates us. Colour can be emotional and therapeutic, much like plants and trees can be." – Gabby O’Connor, 2021.

For a full list of all plant species photographed please contact the Council’s City Arts team: arts@wcc.govt.nz

Rongowhakaata, Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa, Te Arawa, Tuwharetoa, Tahiti, Raiatea, Rarotonga. 

This artwork depicts the stories and geographic history of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. The story focuses on Te Kahui Mounga as told by Taranaki Whanui and the seismic activity that have shaped Te Upoko o Te Ika, the head of the fish or the Wellington region. The artwork, rich in meaning, emphasises the importance of the land as lifeforce.

The central, large figure in the artwork is the god of earthquakes and volcanoes, Ruaumoko. Aotearoa is known for its earthquakes, Ruaumoko was chosen as he is one of the primary Atua in Te Ao Māori due to his frequent activity and origins spanning to the separation of Rangi and Papa. 

Te Whanganui-a-Tara experiences a lot of seismic activity due to the Alpine fault running near our city to Te Waipounamu. Accounts of these events span back to Ngake and Whataitai and the 1855 quake that shaped our waterfront to our last big quake in 2016.

Ruaumoko is known as an angry god, sleeping in the womb of his mother Papatuanuku. He also harnesses the power of volcanoes and thunder. In the world of Māori to feature an atua is to receive blessing and protection from them.

"In my whanau’s experience when a large earthquake struck Gisborne in 2007, many of my family’s belongings were thrown to the floor. The only thing standing was an idol of Ruaumoko, one of my dad’s most fragile carvings, the idol’s stance signified his presence and protection, which is what the artwork’s role will be when featured at the building sites." 

Jagged patterns across the work represent the power of thunder and volcanoes harnessed by Ruaumoko. The Atua is posed upside down like the unborn child within the womb of his mother, the home of Ruaumoko. The fingers spanning either side of Ruaumoko are the hands of Papatuanuku cradling her puku. 

To either side of Ruaumoko’s chest are two eyes and scaled hands representing Te Ika a Maui more specifically, Te Upoko o Te Ika the region of Wellington and Wairarapa. Left whatu represents our harbour, right whatu lake Wairarapa. 

Below are magma chambers, the lifeforce of the land. Ruaumoko’s head sits sleeping, the pattern surrounding him is the uterus and the birthing channel below, referencing also the Pā site, Kumutoto and Kumutoto stream near Lambton Quay, which was used as a birthing stream. 

The entire art piece conveys the story of Te Kahui Mounga, the people who lived on Te Ika a Maui when it was fished out of the sea and inhabited the great mountains of Aotearoa. Some of these are Taranaki, Tongariro and Ruapehu, they are shown as the figures moving up the mountainside. They were also known to inhabit Te Upoko o Te Ika and are mentioned at the war memorial grounds and are known to have named the sacred hilltops of the surrounding area, such as Puke Ariki, Puke Atua, Puke Ahu, Te Ahumairangi, Tangi Te Keo and Matairangi. 

Traditional kowhaiwhai patterns frame the figures and represent the mountains of Aotearoa, the hilltops of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the anatomy of a mountain, the heart of the land and its sacredness to Māori. 

The overarching triangle patterns are Niho Taniwha, depictiong strength and endurance. 

To either side of the central figure are the Taniwha Ngake (left) and Whataitai (right). It is said they were summoned from the heavens by Te Kahui Mounga who recited their incantations from the Puke Atua hill tops. The Taniwha are depicted descending from above to signify this, their mouths bite into the land tying into the story of their actions that shaped the land. Whataitai shaping the west coast spilling from the Korokoro stream and stranded in the Hataitai/Kilbirnie area becoming the land; Ngake shaping the east smashing through to create the harbour channel. 

The story itself references cataclysmic events; another similar event taking place 600 years ago known as Haowhenua where the land was scooped up joining Motukairangi (Miramar) to the mainland. 

The sky and backdrop depict the wind and weather of Wellington as well as the cycle of seasons from left to right – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. 

The darker shapes in the work represent another known transliteration of Pōneke meaning moving through the night. The figures to the far sides represent Iwi who have migrated to the lands from Kupe and Ngai Tara to Taranaki Whanui. 

Nga mihi nui, Taupuruariki Whakataka Brightwell (Ariki Arts)

Rich chocolates, soft-pinks, banana-yellows, grassy greens and deep blacks are just some of the colours used by Ruth Thomas-Edmond to create careful abstractions. Intricate and organic accumulations are made up of repeated forms that reflect themselves, rotating, meandering and permuting around empty spaces. 

In this new work for Wellington City the empty space around the work is held by the city itself. The works are constructed according to a traditional quilt making method, simplified and reworked using washi tape. The temporary nature of the paper tape compliments the nature of this project. Flooding the city street, and the raw, bare construction site with colour and pattern and memory, and a touch of humour in the enlarged stationery and sometimes kitsch colours and patterns.

These patterns are used to form similar shapes drawn again and again, spreading, sprawling and stretching. Coming together not into a quilt but into architectural forms and rooms that never quite adhere to real space and time. Instead they stay within an imaginary realm, suggesting a momentary sense of place for passers-by, of being saturated by a colour and engulfed within a beautiful room. A moment of revery in amongst the everyday. From leafy greens to soft peaches and furry greys, each tone evokes different materials, memories and sensations. Delightful complexity is wrought from simple elements and suggestive form.

Quilt making tells a story of the ways in which women have worked in the vocabulary of abstraction around the world in many different cultures. Quilt making signifies re-use of materials, a worn familiarity of cloth, colour, pattern, of the hand-made, of time and love and touch, of working with people in slow time and conversation, of art in a domestic setting. The language of abstraction is passed down through craft practices and embodied in objects that hold the unique value of things hand-made, and that tell cultural stories and bring people together. This artwork humbly sees these histories as their whakapapa. All the while playfully engaging passes-by in a humorous onslaught of pattern, colour and whimsy.

The composition of this artwork is flexible – just as a quilt is pieced together from square blocks, 10 panels (each measuring 2.4 X 2m) make up the 20m length. The work can be repeated, stacked, stretched or trimmed according to the size of the hoarding. 

Note that the image of the artwork here is indicative only. The final piece will be made more specifically to meet the spatial requirements of this project, however the materiality, mood, colour and pattern will be similar.

Originally from Tonga, Telly moved to Sydney when he was nine years old and where he went on to study fine arts and education before moving to Wellington for love four years ago.

The artist would like to acknowledge the Wellington City Recollect website for the photographs. If you are interested in seeing the original images on the Wellington City Recollect website, see the PDF below.

The backdrop to the artwork is Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the Great Harbour of Tara – where the sea meets the land to form the central horizon line. Telly’s signature latticework, based on Tongan ngatu patterning, adds textual depth to the landscape and situates the work within a contemporary Pacifica genre, which Telly describes as Tong-Pop. Collaged photos from the Wellington City Recollect website shoot out across the artwork like circular memory cells. These images depict moments in the city’s social and political history – some curious, some informative. Figures inspired by those on the New Zealand Coat of Arms bookend the artwork.

The landscape anchors this artwork, providing a static backdrop to an evolving story. The photographic images of people and events past are both a celebration and a commemoration of culture and humanity. The painterly ngatu patterning propels the work into the multi-cultural present, adding another layer, another story to the city’s history and culture.

This artwork speaks to Telly’s feeling of being between place and to his growing sense of belonging to Wellington and love for our city. Ofa atu, Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Ofa atu, Te Whanganui a tara Image Reference (3.8KB PDF)

The composition of this structure reflects the mountains that frame the harbour and the hilly topography of Wellington. The three-dimensional blocks rest gently on a liquid-like surface making the structure appear delicate and temporary, as though it could tumble down and reassemble into a different form. High-rise points give way to shadowy alleyways, interior and exterior environments advance and recede and offer spaces to play.

The layout is imperfect and slightly off centre with random alterations.  The city is not built like Lego blocks – interlocked and firm.  This is a design of contradictions, like the city itself - permanent yet temporary, solid yet fluid, resilient yet fragile, mirroring the humanness of imperfection and contradiction. 

“Building Blocks was inspired by the city’s colour palette, by its network of fault-lines and by its creative, political, multi-cultural population. The blue is the blue of the sea surrounding our city and of the sky after a southerly. Wellington is a city that is never dull, it’s a bold and brave place. Kia kaha Poneke.”

Lisa Darlington, Creative and Brand Manager