Windmills point the way to beauty

By ANNE BESTON environment reporter

A high-tech silver tent on Browns Island is currently home base for a Japanese environmental artist who has chosen the Hauraki Gulf isle as one of six world sites for his "wind caravan."

On a squally Auckland day, artist Susumu Shingu, his wife, Yasuko, and four Japanese assistants, are making coffee on a tiny gas stove in the "windmill house."

Windmills attached to the state-of-the-art tent will harness enough energy to light it up at night, along with the 21 pieces of art which make up the wind caravan.

Each sculpture is about 5m high and made of lightweight aluminium and sailcloth.

The wind caravan is Shingu's attempt to make human beings value and protect their environment.

"We are destroying, we are not recognising the fundamental beauty of this planet," the 63-year-old says.

The sculpture is erected for just two weeks at each site. Its first stop was the rice paddies of Sanda, near Osaka, in Japan, in the middle of this year.

After its stay on Browns Island, or Motukorea, the sculpture will be taken to a frozen lake in Finland in February. It then travels to the ruins of the Casbah in Morocco in April, the steppes of Mongolia in July and the sand dunes of Fortaleaz in Brazil in December.

"Its temporariness is an important part," Shingu says. "Most of the sites are very different but we chose [Browns Island] for its aesthetic beauty. We didn't know it was sacred to Maori, but a part of the sculpture is about learning from indigenous people rather than our culture of materialism.

"I hope we can learn from them how to live without further destroying our environment."

Born in Osaka, Shingu majored in painting at Tokyo University, but switched to sculpture after six years spent living in Italy.

He has built sculptures for airports in America, fashion-house headquarters in Paris and the port of Genoa in Italy.

"He is probably one of the most successful outdoor sculptors in the world," says friend and former Auckland Art Gallery curator Andrew Bogle, who first contacted Shingu to commission a sculpture for Auckland's Viaduct Basin.

That project is continuing, but Shingu had already been considering an island in New Zealand as one of the six sites for the wind caravan.

"He came out for a site visit last year and he loved Browns Island for its proximity to the city and its lack of trees. The contours of the island were perfect for his project," Mr Bogle says.

Local iwi lifted a tapu before work on the wind caravan could begin and the Department of Conservation had to issue a permit.

Shingu says each site has had its own challenges, but he "fell in love" with Motukorea. Each time the caravan is moved, the sailcloth colour is changed. It will be yellow on Browns Island "because I couldn't imagine any other colour," Shingu says.

In Japan, the sculpture was white and in Finland it will be blue.

Many sculptors work only in their studios, Shingu says, but he wanted to "communicate in a more direct way" by taking the wind caravan on a world tour. Everywhere the sculpture is erected, children are encouraged to be part of the project.

"We have to send a message to the next generation because we don't want them to repeat our mistakes," he says.

He has spent "endless" amounts of money on the artwork but is irritated when questioned further.

"Everyone is interested in how much it costs," he says.

"I earn money from my other projects but this is much more important to me."

Mr Bogle says it is fantastic that Shingu has brought the sculpture to New Zealand.

"I think we should at least make the effort to visit the island while it's here. In some strange way he is showing us something that's right under our nose. It's as much about getting us to appreciate our environment as it is about sculpture."

Shingu's wind caravan will be completed on Saturday and will stay until November 19. The artist will give a slide and video lecture at the Auckland City Art Gallery auditorium on Friday night.