Two sculptures were unveiled and blessed at Te Kopua on Friday 26th. Commissioned by the Raglan Kopua Holiday Park Board, the sculptures were by local Whaingaroa artists Tai Meuli and Richard Page. Close to 100 people attended the ceremony which was opened by the Chair of the Holiday Park Board, Colin Chung. Next, Rodger Gallagher, Chair of the Raglan Community Board and Raglan Community Board described the process for selecting the sculptures.
Rodger described how Colin has asked him in 2012 if the Raglan Community Arts Council would manage the process of selecting the winning sculpture by a local artist. The Raglan Arts Council agreed to this request and appointed a subcommittee led by Wanda Barker to undertake the initial selection.
Rodger then outlined the steps:
- In June 2012,the Arts Council called for an expression of interest and 18 local sculptors said they would be interested in designing a work.
- As it was never envisaged that so many high quality sculptors would be interested, further information was requested on the proposals that they had in mind.
- Five suitable artists were then shortlisted by the subcommittee and confirmed by the Raglan Community Arts Council’s executive committee.
- The concepts developed by these five finalists were then considered by a community panel with Wanda Barker as the convenor assisted by Jean Carbon, Amanda Watson, Colin Chung, Pablo Rickard, Rob Clark, and Linda Cole.
- All of the five concepts were of an extremely high standard and the panel struggled to pick one winner. In the end they selected two designs. Chairperson Colin Chung and the Raglan Kopua Holiday Park Board checked their budget for the year and somehow managed to increase the budget and go ahead with two sculptures.
Convenor Wanda Barker said, “Along the way we had to make some incredibly hard decisions.”
Rodger then introduced the two talented Whaingaroa local sculptors, Richard Page and Tai Meuli, saying, “Richard Page started his career with a traditional apprenticeship with Israeli artist Yael Artsi in 1991. Since then he has gone from strength to strength and his works are on public display in China, Israel and New Zealand. His recent emphasis is on creating geometric shapes, which connect someway or another to things aquatic and also exploring the use of LED lighting in his sculpture.
Carver and sculptor Tai discovered his love for working with natural material in his teenage years. It is especially the work with ‘hard stuff’ (stone, wood and metal), offering the opportunity for a very physical involvement in the creative process, that fascinates him. In his sculptures Tai says he often bridges modern spirit and Maori culture, creating contemporary shapes as well as including traditional symbols such as curves and angles.”
Richard Page the described Toki saying his sculpture to the south of the Holiday Park entrance is a depiction of a large toki with the blade pointing to the sky and the north. The stone had come from Taranaki symbolising the traditional path of stone from the south to the north. He described the many hours of love and work that went into the work and acknowledged the people who had helped him.
Next Tai Meuli explained the components and meaning of Pererua Toi, on the northern side of the entrance which presents a sailing waka. It is in two parts with one part representing the sail of the waka. Toi described how he had developed blacksmith and welding skills to forge the steel components of the sail, bending the steel over a timber fire. The other part the sculpture represents the anchor stone with the surface sculpted to resemble raranga (flax weaving) as flax was used to secure the anchor stones of waka. Tai acknowledged the huge team of people who had helped him with the work and getting it in place.
Sean Ellison then outlined the blessing ceremony with a karanga calling people first to Toki where Paddy Kaa and Rhonda Chung blessed it, followed by Waikato Deputy Mayor Dines Fulton cutting the ribbon and unveiling it. Next a second karanga called people to Paihere Tai, where Sean Ellison and Rhonda Chung blessed it and Raglan Ward Councillor, Clint Baddeley cut the ribbon to unveil it.
Colin Chung then invited everybody to the Holiday Park for a cup of tea.
