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Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand

A research initiative based at Toi Rauwhārangi Massey University College of Creative Arts.

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During 2021 we are conducting site visits around Aotearoa to document works on the register, meet with people associated with them, and hunt for more works. Stay tuned for the results!

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The book "WANTED: The Search for the modernist murals of E. Mervyn Taylor" was launched on 3 March 2018. Click through to the Massey University Press webpage for more information.

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The final work (that we’ve found) of Guy’s 20th Century ouevre was another mural using reflective adhesive, made in 1985 for a (then) new National Bank branch in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. This work has now disappeared (most likely destroyed).

In 1984 Guy made an exciting new development in his practice when he started to work with reflective adhesive. This mural for the entrance corridors of the Data General building in central Wellington, also featuring stainless steel strips, was intended to try and bring light into an otherwise dark entrance way. This work has now disappeared (most likely destroyed).

Alongside being an artist, Guy also worked across the fields of graphic, furniture and interior design. He drew on all these skills in this project for the Jasmin Licensed Chinese Restaurant in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington in 1983.

In 1983 Guy created ‘Seascape’ for the New Zealand Wool Board building, known as “Wool House”, in Wellington’s CBD. Made of 19 cast aluminium panels it was to be his last commission with his former employer, Stephenson & Turner. It was later removed from its site and put into storage until architect Ron Sang acquired it and relocated it to his home in Epsom, where it remains.

The Birkenhead Post Office was originally designed and built by Mark-Brown Fairhead in 1975. In the early 1980s Ron Sang (who had by then been a partner of the firm) was commissioned by the Ministry of Works to undertake alterations. He, in turn, commissioned several artists to complete works for the refurbishment including Guy Ngan, Don Driver, and a collaboration between Dinah Priestley & Tony Burton.

In 1980 Guy made this wall sculpture for NZ Wire, in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. When we started this body of research in partnership with @artspace.aotearoa we didn’t know what had happened to this work, but the Artspace community came to the rescue.

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Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand

A research initiative based at Toi Rauwhārangi Massey University College of Creative Arts.

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