Sculptures.org.nz

Ruamoko

Image by Merel Rip

7. Ruaumoko

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Artist Ralph Hotere and Mary McFarlane
Year
Location Corner of Stout Street and Lambton Quay
Tour directions From Spinning Top walk back down and continue North along Lambton Quay. Cross Lambton Quay at the next set of lights. You will stumble upon Raumoko.

God of quakes and volcanoes

At the time that the sky father Ranginui was separated from the earth mother Papatuanuku, they had an unborn child, Ruaumoko. Ruaumoko stayed in his mother’s womb to keep her warm. When he moves, the earth shakes.

Sculpture background

The sculpture's broken columns and confusion of bronze letters looks like the result of an earthquake. The columns and letters came from the demolition in the early 1980s of the State Fire Insurance Building which stood nearby.

This sculpture is a collaboration that brings together two styles. Hotere and McFarlane create an unexpected surprise. Ruaumoko becomes a collaborative work that creates something other than the sum of the two artists' individuality.

Hotere is one of NZ's most eminent artists. He works in a variety of media including corrugated iron, both new and recycled, bearing the marks of former uses. Many of his works incorporate language such as poems and place names, often fragmented. McFarlane is a sculptor, jewellery-maker, painter and printmaker. Some of her works have engaged with architecture, such as figureheads attached to building frontages.

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