Simon and Sarah Peacey
Tai Tokerau Totara – Going Full Circle
In a culture obsessed with photo-shopped exterior beauty, “Tai Tokerau Totara, Going Full Circle” is a metaphor between old, weathered totara fence posts and older people. The most obvious perception of an older person may be wrinkled skin or a bent back, rather than the richness, beauty, experience and wisdom within them. A farmer looked at these totara posts, decided they were too old, too weathered and threw them onto the scrap heap. “Tai Tokerau Totara; Going Full Circle” reuses the totara posts - the old and the ordinary - and shines new light onto the beauty of the old. The sculpture gives them new life to challenge assumptions about age, exterior beauty and value.
Approaching the work, people see sinuous lines of coloured beeswax discs set in the grey, weathered and deeply fissured wood. The wax discs draw the eye upwards and reflect the colours of the sunrises, sunsets, storms and the natural forest environment that the posts have been part of for decades. An image of a native plant runs all the way up the post - a reminder that the posts came from the original native forests and linking to the theme of new life from old.
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