Waiheke Island Sculpture Trail 2024

 Any excuse to go to Waiheke Island is a good excuse and none more so than spending a glorious summer's day walking the bi-annual sculpture trail, Sculptures on the Gulf. This year it is titled Anything Could Happen.  With my friend, Pat, I set off on the enjoyable 35 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland to the island, looking forward to what the exhibition had to offer.  The trail is 2 and a half kilometres long and winds around the Matiatia headland providing magnificent views along with thought provoking art installations.  This year there are 21 pieces,  fewer than in previous years but no less interesting. Here are some of them.

Cognitive Reorientation

This recalls  a scene from the Nordic-Noir television series, The Killing, where a car is lifted from water by a crane to reveal the body of a missing woman. Time is suspended here as water pours non stop from the car.  It Makes a macabre, dystopian water feature.

Artist: Eddie Clemens

Hard Graft

Cape Reinga lighthouse, at the very top of New Zealand, is reimagined here.  Further along the shore line from the light house  is a pohutukawa tree marking the entry to the underworld in maori legend.  The artist has combined the roots of the tree with the lighthouse as a homage to a very special place.

Artist: Oliver Stretton-Pow

No Tomorrow

I have to admit that when we first saw this installation we were bemused but when we read the notes on it it made sense.  Last year there were some terrible floods on Auckland's west coast. In places it is still possible to see the damage caused with debris hanging from distorted fence posts. This work echoes that but is also intended to show the grief and fatigue experienced when we are confronted by disaster.

Artist: Isabella Loudon

Lucken's Wing

This was designed as a tribute to backyard tinkerers, at a time when men would spend endless hours in their garages making weird and wonderful contraptions from bits and pieces. The resulting vehicles were a common sight around Waiheke back in the day.  As the sign on the side says these vehicles operated on a Wing and a Prayer

Artist: Denis O'Connor 

Fountain in Transit

This artist works with stainless steel tubing combining everyday objects into one big maze. The idea behind this piece is to draw our attention to things which help us, organise us and stop us without our giving them another thought.  This sculpture combines a shower, bus handles, a drain, a lamp and a clock.  It pulls the viewer in to imagine how these could possible all come together.

Artist: Yona Lee

These are just a few of the 21 pieces on display.  All installations are thought provoking and excellent conversation starters.  I highly recommend a trip to Waiheke to walk the trail, enjoy the views and see sculptures you are unlikely to see anywhere else.

Walkers on the trail.  The tower in the background is Wakefield Dreaming
by Brett Graham

Below: View of Matiatia and the ferry terminal from the sculpture trail

As always I thoroughly enjoyed the day, more so for the weather, the walk and the views than the art which was not as good as it had been previous years. The exhibition is manned by enthusiastic volunteers and there is a shuttle bus which drops visitors at the start of the trail which winds through bush and around the headland before arriving back at Matiatia and the ferry terminal.  In previous years there had been a marquee on the foreshore where you could buy food and drink.  There is no marquee this year so my friend and I took the short bus trip up to the village of Oneroa and had lunch looking out across the beautiful bay.  All in all we had a fantastic day and had lots to talk about on the ferry back to Auckland.

The exhibition runs from 24 February to 24 March.  Entry and shuttle $20

www.sotg.nz