I was asked to do a sculpture for Pacifica Restaurant in Napier, who were voted the best restaurant in Hawkes Bay last year. Jeremy and Rebecca Rameka are the owners. Jeremy, who is Maori of Ngati Tuwharatoa descent, is the head chef. They have a space where they had a very nice, but Indonesian carving, and wanted something New Zealand, and to reflect the name of the restaurant. I chalked out quite a few potential carvings, before getting to work on on a couple. One is a long and slender whale tail; a bit differnet because of it's length. I made it tall to match the size of the carving it was to replace. The other was a matau, or fish hook in a traditional Maori style, but made from a very old piece of red beech, so looks, when finished, like an artefact. At about 600mm high, both fitted their space perfectly.
I created an eye, and then thought I might as well put some rope there, so got my daughter Tash to weave me some rope out of flax, again in the traditional Maori style. I've got a mate up North, Kerry Strongman, who does this and attatched burr wood sinkers. I've been doing some greenstone (pounamu) carving lately, so thought why not add a pounamu sinker? (talking with Jeremy about his Maori ancestry inspired this). I had a beautiful little river worn stone just the right size in my collection, so I carved a notch all the way around the stone, again as the Maori used to to create their sinkers, and attatched it to the rope.
They took the Matau, so now it is in pride of place in the best restaurant in Hawks Bay, and I have a new whale tail for sale.
