It's taken me a few days this week to have the time to sit down and write about our visit north this past weekend. John and I travelled up to Auckland and further north to go to an open day at Gibbs Farm. The trip was to raise funds to support the Auckland Art Gallery.
It was an amazing day. The 1,000 acre private property overlooks the Kaipara Harbour, and has a growing collection of monumental sculptures (20+) by major contemporary artists installed in dramatic, open air settings. Animals, exotic and otherwise, range around the place. The farm is open monthly by appointment to educational institutions, artists, charities and the public. It is a very special place that everyone should see it at least once. In New Zealand the phrase "world class" is overused and often aspirational, reflecting in my mind some self-esteem issues, but I don't know how else to describe Gibbs Farm.
I was going to spend some time researching the works and artists but have given up on that in the interest of time and my fear that I wouldn't do them justice despite some art history education many years ago. Artists include Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, Maya Lin (who designed the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. and is currently working on the renovation of the Neilson Library at my alma mater, Smith College), and Len Lye, amongst many others.
My favourites were a new work entitled "Jacob's Ladder" by Gerry Judah, "Dismemberment, Site 1," by Anish Kapoor, and "Te Tuhirangi Contour" by Richard Serra. The light and sky weren't terribly good for photography that day, but I'll share some photos with you below so you can get an idea of the variety of works and the massive scale, of both the art and the landscape.
As you might imagine, this has given John a few "ideas." We'll work our way through that.
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