Whale driver with an ecological point

Alwin Reamillo regards his wheeled whale as a social structure. Picture / Fotopress

A number of whale-sightings have been reported in Manukau City, although these have mainly been near Otara rather than Manukau Harbour, and the whale is a four-wheeled variety. Most recently, it was seen at Otara Markets.

Filipino artist Alwin Reamillo, who once created a helicopter with beer cans and emu feathers, has been artist in residence at Manukau School of Visual Arts for the past eight weeks. He has been working with students and the local community to build a whale-car from scrap automotive parts.

Manu(kar) is the second wheeled whale in his CARnage project. The original being was devised for the small Western Australian community of Augusta, where many whale strandings occur.

"Part of the idea of CARnage is because Augusta also has a reputation for having many traffic accidents, especially among young people," says Reamillo.

"A remote community always has this problem of kids getting bored. I think Australia, like New Zealand, also has a big car culture and maybe this was a way of harnessing all this pent-up energy and trying to focus it into an idea of rescuing.

"I don't drive," says Reamillo. "I'm working on a car project and I'm still working on my hours to get my L plates. For me, it was a way of understanding and learning about the car culture.

"I don't fly helicopters either and I haven't seen a whale, but it was an opportunity to get that frame of mind. I am always interested in making connections."

In the 1800s, Western Australia was close to several whaling stations, where the mammals were stripped for resources. "This [project] was kind of reversing the idea of using industrial materials," says Reamillo. "In the old days, you killed whales to use the products for industry. Now, in this project, we are trying to use the scraps from industry to talk about not just whales but communities and working together and addressing things that affect young people especially." 

A key aspect of Reamillo's work is the networking involved in producing his work and, in Augusta, he was specifically working with youth at risk.

"I practically camp in the space - I set up a kitchen and a living space where people can come and exchange, share meals, tell stories, and develop the whale.

"The process of making this sculpture follows the traditional process of hunting and gathering. So, in making and constructing this thing, we made all these different connections to the local communities - it is a hunting of materials and a gathering of people.

"The project also taps into the skills of local people, so it's a process of weaving together different strands and, in a way, it significantly shapes the final work."

Reamillo is from Manila but has been living in Perth for the past 10 years. His social approach to sculpture draws from the Filipino tradition of Bayanihan.

"From growing up in the Philippines, I am very much interested in grounding my practice in Bayanihan, which is literally translated as collectively as a community. You carry the house of a person who wants to relocate to a different place, so the spirit of Bayanihan is invoked in the people and you literally move the house." 

Although the whale-car was designed in response to the community of Augusta, Reamillo says it is equally relevant to Auckland, as well as Fukuoka, where the next one will be built.

"The CARnage was initially site-specific to Augusta, but it offered conceptual possibilities. A rescued whale in Augusta, migrating to Auckland's Manukau Harbour, surfacing and stranding again in Otara. Strands and strandings are words that are rich in meaning.

"Otara/Manukau also has a high concentration of young people and most of them are from Pacific Island cultures, where migration is very much part of the culture.

"These different strands - people, materials, organisations, small businesses - are ingredients of this social sculpture.

"Another metaphor could be operative, that of cultural weaving.

"On an economic and political level, I am also weaving in notions about globalisation and the traffic migration and collision of cultural signs - importation of Japanese cars, car culture, technology and notions of progress within a capitalist system.

"We also have the political issue of scientific whaling, largely opposed by Australia and New Zealand. When the project migrates and resurfaces in Fukuoka, these will become a major focus of the work."

* Manu(kar), by Alwin Reamillo at the Manukau School of Visual Arts and around Auckland