Seahenge Meets Maori

An interview with Maori sculptor George Nuku by Esther Boehm

Making art is always an adventure. At least in my life it is. This time I was lucky enough to be part of someone else's adventure.

After driving through the Norfolk countryside — one of my loves — I arrived at a farmhouse where I met George. I helped him prepare wood – another love – for his sculpture to be exhibited at the GroundWork Gallery in King's Lynn. I asked George to share a few words about his work:

"Veronica Sekules of GroundWork gallery is a visionary and in Maori she is called 'Ngakaunui' – Ngakau is the name we give to the mind and the heart being connected – 'mindheart' it is seen as a complete organ to both the brain and the heart individually and they have their own names respectively. Nui means great or large. I have known, felt and experienced directly this quality of Veronica for 20 years now...

Through her mindheart, I believe that she sensed intuitively, that upon showing and informing me of the Seahenge, that I would react and relate in turn.

I have spoken to other artists who have worked with her and they instantly recognised this in their relations with her also.

The Seahenge itself pierced my psyche, it seemed to reach out over time and space to make itself present – In a way that I was familiar with from my Maori upbringing.

All the elements were there, the portal, doorway consisting of a forked tree upside down – the thighs of the sacred female through which you pass to enter the enclosure, the house, the space.

Passing through and under the place between her thighs that we all come from.

In the Maori stories, this place is also the abode of the goddess of the underworld, of the long night, of death – in essence, the place we come from is the place we return to, we all come from her, we are her babies and we are forever to her – in life and afterwards...

The placement of the trees in the Seahenge, with the central one upside down also with the roots above, forming a receptacle in which payments were presented – to make the payments necessary to ensure the cycle, the turning, to say thank you and to ensure favour with the gods through payment and importantly – acknowledgement.

The upside down trees revealed in turn another world below, above, beside, it makes no difference this way of divining everything is the world that is strong in my veins and my role in life is to facilitate between this world and the next.

I chose to represent the Seahenge as a vast Takarangi – a type of double helix spiral, Takarangi depicts the creation of the world, the moment when light penetrates the darkness in the micro-second. Pure uncontaminated light, this process occurs every morning directly after the darkest part of the night. The dawning light of the new day, a new world, a new beginning is sacred.

Tane nui aa Rangi is the son of heaven – his parents Rangnui/Father sky & Papatuanuku/Mother earth set the context for the creation of the world. It was Tane, the oldest son who separated his parents by pushing his father up into the sky, allowing the light to enter and as mentioned, the creation of the world.

The first act Tane performed was to take the trees and plant them as pillars, to hold heaven and earth in the correct position and if the trees are all removed, the world will end.

The trees in the Seahenge reminded me of this.

To me the plastic is sacred as all is sacred, as are the pieces of locally found wood in the Seahenge installation. Like us, they are all from our mother as everything in our world ultimately descends from. Like the wood/trees, the plastic itself is as ancient from it's genealogy from oil, yet so new also – between this contradiction lies a space of great discovery, the plastic is able to tell us many things if we can understand by getting closer to it – perhaps the plastic can save us...

The artwork itself is titled 'Seahenge Axis Mundi' – the world turns, the cycles continue in their turning and we perform the act of balancing between directing & being directed by the changes – I believe that the key to this balance is that we must never stop moving.

The turning aspect of the artwork evidences the binding action, we bind ourselves to each other and to everything, my Maori culture reminds me of this also as we lived in a world without nails – everything therefore was bound – canoes, houses, weapons, people everything.

The carvers would bind the stone adze blades to the wooden handles each morning, at the completion of the day they would in turn unbind them and put the adze blades 'to sleep' in a special repository for the night – then repeat the process the next morning. This binding/turning and unbinding/reversing is in itself, an activation and de-activation process.

In the ancient French this is called 'Relegare' – from ligare/ligament – to bind and confirm, to ensure a successful outcome – so in this context my art is like the Seahenge, it is religious in both it's nature and intent.

Just as importantly, through all of this work I became bound to Veronica, Sandy Heslop who hosted me throughout and their son Jack, who worked with me entirely from initial stage to final installation.

To my new and everlasting comrade in art, sculptor Esther Boehm who gave her time freely to assist Jack and I.

The artist Frances Kearney who together we co-exhibited in this exhibition titled 'Out of the Depths', together our work binds in a poetic manner beyond words.

The young women of Groundwork Gallery, Mary and Lily whom I immediately threw into the breech and breathed fresh energy into the last crucial finishing tasks of both assembling and installing.

Together all of us mentioned, bound ourselves together on a voyage of discovery – resulting in both the satisfaction and authority of the work is shared equally, this in turn is what we transmit on to the people...

Mauriora.

George Nuku."

The impressive cut and carved plastic disc looks like ice but reminds me of that pure light – in contrast, the dark natural wood forms. Expressive shadows are cast through the gallery perhaps like ripples in the water at Seahenge. They connect (bind) with Frances Kearney's stunning photographs and objects.

It has been a joy and privilege to take part in this project.

You can visit 'Out of the Depths, New Works: George Nuku, Frances Kearney' at GroundWork Gallery, 17 Purfleet St., King's Lynn, PE30 1ER, 11-4 Wednesday to Saturday until 6 June.

Esther Boehm www.estherboehm.com