Adam Ellis

R-BOMB is a living sculpture that transforms the iconography of the nuclear warhead into an instrument of ecological regeneration. 

The artwork responds to the famous 1980 artwork (691 D) Plant Trees - Avert Nuclear Peril by Hundertwasser and the simple, poignant message it embodies. The work interprets Hundertwasser’s statement literally, reframing a symbol of technological destruction as a carrier of life, turning the warhead into a tree-delivery device — a rātā bomb.

Constructed from pumiceous concrete designed to hold moisture and nurture life, the work functions as a vertical habitat delivering a payload of native epiphytic plants, mosses and ferns. At its core grows something powerful, special & rare: Rātā Moehau, the Cape Reinga white rātā. Rātā Moehau is critically endangered in the wild and unique to Te Hiku-o-te-Ika a Maui.

This rātā sculpture is part of the artists’ life work growing rātā and other epiphytic trees of Aotearoa over found and purpose-built objects to celebrate their incredible ecological story and expose their sculptural root formations.

For more information and pricing, please visit https://www.pollen.net.nz/portfolio/shrine or contact Adam Ellis directly adam@pollen.net.nz.