»Pohutukawa continued from over • A revered pohutukawa at Cape Reinga, the and pendants with a raw natural style that has northernmost tip of New Zealand, is reputed to quickly made them highly coveted items in have been there for more than 800 years. The fashion circles around the world from Barneys site is sacred to Māori people as the departure in New York to fashion designer Paul Smith in 1 FEBRUARY — 12 MARCH 2014 point of the spirit from this world to their the UK. Nga Waiata’s jewels can also be found traditional homeland of Hawaiiki. This locally in design stores and private collections windswept pohutukawa marks the spot known throughout the country. Recycled pohutukawa as Te Rerenga Wairua ‘the place of leaping’. It is an important part of her practice - as she says is from here that the spirits of the dead begin “the rich red wood works beautifully with dark their journey leaping off the headland and crystals…”. Nga Waiata works from her home Precious climbing down the gnarled, twisted roots of studio in Napier. the tree, descending into the underworld for their return journey. The Pohutukawa cabinet draws its inspiration from: • A boat knee form. Nga Waiata ~ Jeweller • A swing hanging from a tree. Born in 1962 in Hastings, Nga Waiata has followed various creative pathways and following • A coffin or casket signifying death. a long career in fashion and has, for the past 4 • The twisted roots of the pohutukawa reaching Works by Tim Wigmore in collaboration with years, been focusing on jewellery as a creative for the ground, perhaps leading to the under- and commercial venture. She has developed a world as in the story of the Place of Leaping. Brian Flintoff • Lyonel Grant • Veranoa Hetet unique range of crystal and native timber rings Graeme Priddle • Nga Waiata • Chris Weaver Rimu Stories Tim Wigmore’s Precious Cargo project stems from Rimu • Not only is the foliage of young trees reminis- his research into the historical uses and physical cent of a feathery seaweed, but the red sap is Rimu and Ceramic Clay Cutter characteristics of our native trees and plants and his by Chris Weaver said to have come from the blood of Tunuroa, Rimu Cabinet and Puriri Cabinet a dreaded water monster. exploration of Māori myth and legend. As an artist by Tim Wigmore 2012 • The demigod Māui, wanting to discover the and furniture designer Tim Wigmore was drawn to secret of fire, visited the goddess Mahuika. She Māori Name: Rimu or puaka and often in its gave him one of her fingernails, which the waka huia form. “I see it as an uniquely New doubled up form rimurimu contained the fire. To trick her, Māui deliber- Common Name: Red Pine Zealand perspective on the idea of jewellery or treasure ately put out the flame and returned for Botanical Name: Dacrydium cupressinum another fingernail. He repeated this until or even tool boxes. They both conceal and reveal — Rimu is a slow-growing tree, eventually Mahuika, realising she had been duped, cast an idea which is also inherent in furniture design. attaining a height of up to 50 meters. Its lifespan the last nail down and set the underworld is approximately 800 to 900 years. The leaves alight. Fire became implanted in kaikōmako, For Precious Cargo Tim approached six renowned are small and awl-shaped. The seeds are rimu and tōtara. Since then, fire has been makers and asked them identify a tool emblematic dispersed by birds such as the kakapo, which eat made by rubbing sticks from these trees in the fleshy scale and pass the seed on in their grooves of māhoe or patatē wood. of their practice. “I wanted to collaborate with other droppings. One of the most prized timber trees, Rimu is well known for its strength and Chris Weaver ~ Potter artists and find out which tools were precious to them, durability and often used in furniture, although Chris Weaver was born in Te Awamutu in the which tool was worthy of its own special case.” The very little is milled these days. Much of New North Island of New Zealand and grew up in the Zealand’s rimu has been logged and in 1999 South Island. His first memory of clay is as a Precious Cargo collaborators are; musician & carver commercial logging was halted on the South young boy, finding some when his father was Brian Flintoff, carver Lyonel Grant, weaver Veranoa Island’s West Coast, the location of the last digging out steps in a bank down at the bottom remaining large rimu forests. of their property in Nelson. He made his first Hetet, wood turner Graeme Priddle, jeweller Nga Rimu Use pots then and has been obsessed by clay ever Waiata and potter Chris Weaver. Wigmore has since. He has earned a reputation as one of New • The juicy red cup that holds the seed was eaten designed and made a cabinet for each of these six Zealand’s most accomplished ceramic table- by Māori. tools, predominantly constructed from the same • The resinous heartwood was split into slivers ware artists. His signature rimu timber handled and tied in bundles for torches. ‘Iron’ tea pot has become an icon of New plant material as the tool. Each cabinet, in its design Zealand design and Chris’s work is represented • Used in beer brewing by Captain Cook. in private collections and museums throughout and finish, explores unique aspects of the history, • Where Kauri did not grow, European settlers New Zealand, as well as in Australia, China and used rimu as the main building timber. properties and stories of its particular material. Japan. He works from his studio in Kaniere, east • The bark was a common source of tannin in of Hokitika. Precious Cargo demonstrates how the acquired and tanning leather • Used most recently for furniture, woodturning The rimu cabinet draws its inspiration from: inherited material knowledge and expertise of lead- and carving. • The action of slicing clay. ing makers, gathered from their disparate making • The inner bark of the rimu tree was beaten into • The relationship between the fire implanted in traditions, transcends those differences. And how pulp and used as a poultice on burnt skin. the rimu as in the above story, and the firing of • The pulped bark was combined with water and clay. that expertise can be harmonised in the creation of hot stones in a calabash and dabbed on ulcers • A stylized representation of the unique bark new works that share the inheritance of multiple or running sores. patterns. • The gum of the young tree was used to staunch • The form is inspired by the seed capsule. Tim Wigmore acknowledges the assistance of Creative New Zealand with Precious Cargo making traditions. bleeding wounds. • The form also references the whare (house) for • The leaves were applied to skin sores. which rimu was one of the favoured and • The aromatic leaves of this conifer were used predominant construction materials for both for vapour baths. Māori and European builders. Objectspace 09 376 6216 8 Ponsonby Rd Mon to Sat 10 to 5 Auckland [email protected] New Zealand www.objectspace.org.nz Mataī Stories: together again, chip by chip. With powerful chants community at Taheke. Trained as a classical • Puriri is an invaluable food source for native Mataī • The wishing tree of Mataī Tapu on Hongi’s they lifted the tree back onto its stump. Rata carver Lyonel is recognised as one of New Puriri wildlife, as it provides both fruit and nectar in Track: He who pays a fern-frond’s tribute at the leapt from the bushes angry that the hakaturi Zealand’s preeminent sculptors who’s work seasons when few other species produce these, Mataī Koauau by Brian Flintoff Puriri and Brass Chisel Mataī Cabinet by Tim Wigmore root and walks around the crusty bole, shall (forest spirits) were playing a trick on him. They spans between the traditions of traditional by Graeme Priddle thus it is often used in restoration planting 2012 have his secret wish fulfilled”. A Love of Trees — chastised him for cutting the tree without asking whakairo rakau (Māori wood carving), and the Puriri and Brass Cabinet • Māori preferred other timbers to puriri as its by Tim Wigmore Māori Name: Mataī Grammaticus 1982 Tane’s permission. Humbled, Rata performed the cutting edge of contemporary art production. cross-grain made for difficult carving, but karakia (prayers) and built a mighty waka from 2012 Common Name: Black Pine • The Goddess Hine Raukatauri is the casemoth The tōtara cabinet draws its inspiration from: puriri garden tools and weapons had a long life the tōtara tree. Māori Name: Puriri Botanical Name: Prumnopitys taxifolia who lives in her elongated cocoon that hangs • The action of using a wedge to split a tōtara and legend has it that buckshot used to Common Name: Puriri from many native trees. The male casemoth Proverb. He iti te matakahi pakaru rikiriki te log ready for carving. ricochet off puriri palisades. Endemic to New Zealand the mataī tree grows Botanical Name: Vitex lucens pupates and flies away, but the female remains tōtara. A wedge may be small, but it can reduce • It was used in the construction of hinaki (eel up to 40 m high, with a trunk up to 2 m diameter. • The form references a house pile (one of its in her case. At night as the breeze blows through the tōtara to splinters. Lowland puriri forests were once widely found traps) because it was one of the few timbers The leaves are small linear or sickle-shaped.