Artist: James Turkington
Title: Untitled (Māui ensnaring the sun)
Medium: Sand-blasted/acid-etched glass ceiling panels
Dimensions: Unknown (estimated at up to 8000 x 8000 mm)
Date: 1959
Original location: Chief Post Office, Cnr Gill and Currie Sts, New Plymouth 4310.
Architect: Taylor & Syme and Associates (R. W. Syme)
Commissioning Body: New Zealand Post Office
Current location: In situ, but partially covered and difficult to view.
Heritage status: No known protection

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Originally commissioned by Architect R W Syme, Turkington’s acid-etched and sand-blasted lay-light ceiling mural was once the centrepiece of New Plymouth’s new Post Office building. Inspired by the Māori legend of Māui and his brothers harnessing the sun, Turkington’s subject matter was likely to have been inspired by its site at the base of a light well that illuminated the main office and public counters of the building. Supervised by Turkington, the glass was sand-blasted in Auckland before being shipped to New Plymouth where it was installed under a perspex covering which gave protection against the weather while allowing ample light into the ground floor.

It is possible to imagine that the effect of natural sunlight filtering through the panels would have added a power and glory to the exquisitely rendered image. Indeed, Director-General of the Post Office C.A. McFarlane wrote to Turkington in 1959 speculating that “the panels are likely to arouse considerable interest when the building is opened,” and, as one local recalled, gazing up at the image as a child filled them with a sense of awe.

Almost destroyed completely in 1996, the work was saved by the efforts of the New Plymouth Heritage Protection Group and others after the eminent painter and sculptor, Don Driver, expressed his concern. The building’s new owners, the ANZ Banking Group, were refurbishing the interior and had planned to cover the ceiling, but public feeling persuaded them to preserve the work. Despite being saved, the mural now sits awkwardly in a new context. The sun no longer shines through the panes of glass, which now have a floor built above them, and a false-ceilinged office space below precludes the mural from being seen in its entirety.

Thought for many years to be the work of E. Mervyn Taylor, this work was re-discovered to be that of James Turkington by Sue Elliott in 2017 while undertaking research for the E. Mervyn Taylor Mural Search & Recovery Project. Six illustrated panels on the front of the building are also potentially Turkington’s.

Details of the mural can be seen in a 2010 documentary “The Art of Mervyn Taylor” by Kapiti Coast film maker Errol Wright.