Roke

1999-2003

Roke 1-3, 1999-2003, three installation views, terra cotta and steel
Te Mahure-Hure Marae, Auckland
Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland
The New Dowse Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ

The hand is an eyeless and voiceless organ which can nonetheless see and speak, it takes the sense of touch away from its merely receptive passivity and organises it for experiment and action.

Roke is a series of sculptural installations that was created from a large number of terra-cotta ceramic casts of my own hand. These were installed in a range of circular shapes, sometimes on a convex steel structure. Each ring of terra-cotta hands was fired at a different temperature and arranged from the lightest in the center to the darkest at the edge, this colour arrangement of the hands created a glowing effect. The works looked like abstract, glowing and colourful surface from far away but the appearance and meaning changed once you came closer.