Not long after sunrise, in an industrial part of Waiheke Island, away from the curving coastline and waterfront mansions, Anton Forde arrives at his yard and begins work. After he parks his truck, the artist gestures to a contemporary Māori pou – carved from sustainably sourced Australian hardwood – near the entrance to his yard and gallery, believing it to represent his late grandmother. Two unfinished pou lie against a building wall. Rocks and bits of broken stone are scattered near piles of wood, tools and an open shed.
Forde (Ngāti Ruanui, Taranaki) is one of New Zealand’s most exciting contemporary sculptors. He is a recognised Ngāi Tahu pounamu artist. Forde also works with other stone – basalt/ ōnewa, obsidian/tūhua from Waiheke and andesite/kōkawa from Taranaki Maunga.
Best known for his site-specific installations of contemporary pou, the 50-year-old was last year one of two New Zealand artists invited to exhibit at Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea, the world’s largest sculpture exhibition, where he won the Artist’s Pick Award for Papare/Protection. In March this year, he exhibited Papare/Protection in a different configuration at Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe in Perth, Western Australia, where he received the 2024 Mostyn Family Foundation Artist subsidy and Sculpture by the Sea Staff Selection Award.
Each pou Forde creates has a pounamu taonga/necklace around its neck in the shape of a teardrop. The contemporary pou are becoming the artist’s signature works. They can exist as individual pieces, but also as a collective, like a village.
His latest pou installation, Papare Eighty.one, is now at Pātaka Art + Museum in Porirua. It features 81 carved wooden pou that appear as sentinels in the gallery. Forde is not a numerologist – he’s been asked a lot if he is – but the number of pou and their arrangement in an installation has to work in each creation.
“Every work that I create, there’s a story of a time and a place of why I’m doing what I’m doing,” he says. “There’s always a purpose.”
Papare Eighty.one will be the largest contemporary pou installation of his career. He saw the Pātaka gallery space three years ago – “this huge, amazing room’' – and the exhibition came from then.
If you look closely, each pou is unique in the angle of the head, the inclination – which Forde thinks of as a facial expression – and carvings. Arranged on riverstones, each one will wear a hand-carved pounamu taonga – again, slightly different, and the pou will be arranged in a kaokao-inspired (ribbed) formation.
“Configuring the pou as guards, Anton places natural environments under their protection,” says Pātaka senior curator, Ioana Gordon-Smith, “Papare Eighty.one enacts a call to safeguard the future of our natural world for generations to come.”
Forde says five pou will be protected by the others, wearing cloaks made by kaiwhatu/weaver Shiree Reihana; others stand like elders. He’ll arrange them so they’re acknowledging one another, perhaps conversing.
Forde thinks of nine – eight plus one – as a pivotal number. While Papare Eighty.one is not specifically a Matariki exhibition, the timing is relevant. There are nine stars in the Mataraki constellation. Eighty-one is also significant: 1881 was the invasion of Parihaka and 1981 was the Springbok tour. “Both events changed this country and the world.”
In 2020, he was shocked when the smoke coming from the Australian bush fires covered the skies above Waiheke. “When I first visited that Pātaka space, I was still feeling the effects of what had happened with the bush fires. Other things have happened, like Covid, flooding, wars, and I’ve calmed down a wee bit on this front, but still, it’s really important. Because we live on an island, the kids know what weather events are happening, they know what the tides are doing. We’re all very connected to our environment here.’’
He headed across the Tasman last September, where his installation at Bondi, Papare/Protection, stood in the kaokao formation, again reflecting Forde’s environmental concerns.
In Perth this year, he wanted to learn about the land and its origins. “In Perth, I wanted to connect with the formation of migratory birds. And it gave a lightness to the work, it looked like they were just coming down to land on the beach because they stood on the tiered site.’’
Each time he creates a work, he thinks: why am I doing this? He points to a pou, at the crosses on it which symbolise whetu/stars. Haehae – markings down the front – represent scars or markings of the life journey.
Forde was 18 when he began carving and studying art with influential sculptors Paul Dibble, Gary Whiting and Paul Hansen. But he couldn’t see how he could make a career out of it, so he trained and worked as a teacher.
He carved his first pou in this contemporary form about 12 years ago, when a winery commissioned him to make a sculpture from 120-year-old pūriri fenceposts. Five years ago, he completed a Master of Māori Visual Arts degree at Massey University under Professor Robert Jahnke, and Forde’s works are now held in public and private institutions in Aotearoa and around the world.
In mid-May, Forde held his first exhibition at the Waiheke Community Gallery in five years. At the opening of Māhutonga – Time Stands Still, artists, locals, Ngāti Ruanui whānaunga and iwi were there to support him and he was moved by the evening. This show was a series of pounamu/nephrite works on bases of basalt, obsidian and andesite. Three pou made of Australian hardwood stood near the entrance to the gallery.
Figures carved out of pounamu sit atop stone bases. Each pounamu figure is slightly different in size, shape or the way it inclines its head. Some sit on tall stones, while others stand on smaller rocks.
A number of these works were Forde’s response to the 2023 floods. “Our yard got flooded a number of times. In many areas of Aotearoa, it was hugely catastrophic. I thought about the huge responsibility of those in charge who have the ability to look from above and help … or not, and those heroes who saved lives by seeing problems and finding solutions. And also those people who are looking after us from above.”
Forde is a self-confessed introvert and a reluctant interviewee. “Papare Eighty.one is the conclusion to a really busy time. After this, I’m wanting some space to create and reflect. My hands, body and soul are also looking forward to a bit of a rest.’’ His hands often ache and they swell from the hours he spends carving, chiselling and cutting stone and hardwood.
Although he prefers his own company and the solitude to create, the artist also appreciates the need to put his work out there in public exhibitions and how this practice can be unifying. He writes, “Public exhibitions give us a chance to absorb, connect and reconnect with beauty, Earth and each other through one of the most ancient processes of human creativity and interaction.’’
Waiheke has been Forde’s home for more than 15 years. He lives in Ōmiha/Rocky Bay, the island’s southern bay towering with nīkau palms and dense bush, home to residents drawn to the simple island lifestyle. “I love being here. I love being able to create on this island.’’
Papare Eighty.one is at the Pātaka Art + Museum in Porirua until October 13.