Sculptures.org.nz

Taiaha

Image by Merel Rip

14. Taiaha

Artist Guy Ngan
Year
Location Mounted on an exterior wall, Reserve Bank, the Terrace
Tour directions From the Navigator make your way to Bowen st and cross the street at the lights. The building on the top corner on the other side is the Reserve bank.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary is on New Zealand's $5 note. If you hold the note against the light you should also see H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

Sculpture background

This sculpture, over ten metres high, cast in bronze and including fifty parts acts as a monumental and symbolic guardian figure. It protects the entrance and the integrity of the monetary system. The fifty parts form two taiaha (a traditional weapon) held by Ngan's signature 'tiki hands motif'.

It is an early example of the fusion of Maori and modernist European motifs to announce bicultural corporate identities and agendas.

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