Focus Live: Fire and Emergency New Zealand on the SkyCity Convention Centre flooding.
It will still be Auckland, but not quite as we know it.
The city will appear wrapped in a forest canopy filled with leaf images, winding over the land and across the Waitematā, the sun filtering through 60 different colours as the day progresses.
Sara Hughes designed what is saidto be New Zealand’s biggest new artwork, and she’s expecting our view of this city to change once we can see the glass art from inside the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) between Hobson St, Nelson St and Wellesley St.
A render showing how the city might look through the new panels designed by Sara Hughes for the convention centre.
Most of the second set of panels are now up on the NZICC’s exterior.
The hundreds of panels, with a total area of 2400 square metres, were on the exterior of the almost-finished building when a fire broke out, but were initially thought to have survived the blaze.
“I worked with the same company in Singapore to manufacture the art glass panels. There was considerable testing and technical challenges to ensure the quality and colour were the same, and I worked closely with the team throughout the process to ensure quality and consistency,” Hughes said of the second replacement set of 550 panels.
Her “sky forest” of colourful panels are giants at 9 metres, or three levels, high and feature on the outside of Sky City Entertainment Group’s new building.
“One of the most challenging aspects of the project for me was considering all the different ways the artwork would be viewed. Looking at the work from inside of the new building, there will be long-distance views towards the Ponsonby ridge line, but also closer-up views looking over the city. It was important to me that the artwork operated on a macro and micro scale,” she said.
The work was commissioned by Paul Baragwanath, the director of Artform, which specialises in civic, commercial and residential art projects.
The artwork flanks the sides of the building, which takes up almost a whole city block, except for TVNZ and the Albion Hotel.
Sara Hughes' panels being re-installed on the New Zealand International Convention Centre. Photo / Michael Craig
“You see it driving along Hobson St and Nelson St. Pedestrians look up to it,” Hughes said.
The work comprises 550 glass panels with prominent fins.
A work on this scale had not been created before, Hughes said. The panels, which have 60 colour tones, were inspired by her upbringing in rural Northland near the Waipoua kauri forest.
“The artwork reflects the experience of walking through the New Zealand bush and looking up through a canopy of trees to see the unique light and colour of the forest. It’s really exciting and moving for me personally to see this work lifted into place and on public display.’’
Baragwanath said the NZICC development presented an exciting and meaningful opportunity to show the uniqueness of Aotearoa in a major artwork.
The aim is to inspire locals and visitors and convey unique aspects of this country.
“A key inspiration was to bring the natural world into the heart of the city. Looking up and seeing this gives a sense of being with nature,” he said.
The sky forest was conceived along with a second artwork: the large-scale ceramic installation by Peata Larkin on the north facade of the NZICC.
Sara Hughes' latest project Midnight Sun.
“Peata’s work is like the trunks of trees in a forest, and Sara’s is like the tree canopy. There is a beautiful complementarity between the two. It has become the largest artwork in the public realm in this country,” Baragwanath said.
Gow Langsford Gallery director Anna Jackson said although the sky forest had taken much longer than originally expected, the demands on Hughes’ time had not abated elsewhere.
Hughes has continued to produce other work for gallery shows, Jackson said.
Gow Langsford is now showing Today, an exhibition of her most recent paintings, which have precise configurations of geometric elements and a real sense of energy, Jackson said.
“We’d like to have saved the artwork, but the facade engineers looked very closely, and there was internal damage. It looks fine to my eyes, but it would’ve been risky to leave them there. The panels are enormous too, around 2500sq m in total, so hopefully, something can be done with the old ones. Maybe they can be ground up to make a road?” Hughes said.
Construction of the NZICC is anticipated to be finished by 2025.
SkyCity announced this week it would open its new five-star Horizon Hotel on March 1 next year.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
