The Casting of the Nets

1997

Ted Smyth

Accessible

Type

  • Sculpture
  • Installation

Medium

  • Stainless steel

Dimensions

  • Approx. H13,000 x W6935 x D9210mm

Ted Smyth, ‘The Casting of the Nets’ (c1997), Mahuhu ki te Rangi Park, CBD, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

Image: Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021

Description

This sculptural work consists of four large stainless steel poles from the which are "suspended ‘net-like’ forms symbolic of the importance of iwi and whanau in past, present and future."

The park, 'Mahuhu ki te Rangi' is name after a significant tupuna waka of Ngāti Whātua and was the first occasion that landscape architect Smyth first used design elements derived from Māori decorative arts. "The reserve has an abstract koru embedded into the paving and etched into the edges of the water sculpture. The large central water sculpture is fed by three finger-like troughs. The suspended stainless-steel nets symbolically cast wide the mana of Ngati Whātua, reflecting the unique status of the iwi and the land where the wider development sits."

~ quotes from Te Paparahi, Toi Māori: Walks in the City. Booklet produced by Auckland Council – Thanks to the Auckland City Centre Targeted Rate.