The Sculpture Terrace is a special outdoor exhibition site. This courtyard and the balcony beyond, with its spectacular views, offer an exceptional vantage point for experiencing contemporary sculpture.
Works presented here are specially commissioned by Te Papa, and integrate with the environment in a unique way. The visitor walks through and within the artwork, so that the artwork becomes the site.
The Sculpture Terrace is designed to present visitors with fresh and engaging ideas about sculpture. It features a regularly changing programme of artworks.
Two intriguing new works open at the Sculpture Terrace on 18 October 2008:
Ronnie van Hout
A loss, again 2008
Ronnie van Hout, whose project will be installed on the Inner Terrace until June 2010, continues his work addressing ideas of the ‘self’ – how it is formed, and expressed.
A loss, again examines loss and memory in a highly specific case: that of the locked tool shed of van Hout’s father. Throughout van Hout’s boyhood, the shed was locked and inaccessible. It was only after his father’s death that van Hout was allowed access. As the shed had been a source of fascination for so long, it was a bittersweet moment for him to finally get inside.
Van Hout has created two replicas of the shed – one of which contains the contents of the original: tools, ropes, shelves, boxes, a fridge. The other replica shed is empty. Both sheds, like the original, remain inaccessible.
Van Hout’s work abounds with replicas, usually based on self-portraits: plastic head casts, life-sized body doubles, videotaped monologues. In this case, he has created a portrait of both himself and his father by creating these sheds, doubled for ‘father’ and ‘son’.
> Other works by Ronnie van Hout in Te Papa's Collections Online
Seung Yul Oh
Oddooki 2008
Seung Yul Oh’s project, installed on the Outer Terrace until May 2009, is a playful collection of five egg-shaped birds that rock and chime. Based on weighted toys that always right themselves, the works contrast a folksy aesthetic with the formal sculptural properties of high-gloss finished surfaces. The title of the installation is based on a translation of the Korean word for these rocking toys into English letters, giving us the intriguing Oddooki.
Dispersed throughout the space, the oddooki play with form, surface, colour and movement. Oh takes advantage of Wellington’s natural elements by creating a work that is activated by the wind and animated by other natural elements, such as the play of summer light on the glossy surface of the works. He refers to the pieces that make up Oddooki as performance sculptures that ‘might be read as players in an orchestra, each generating their own unique tones, or as a dance ensemble of quirky egg-like figures choreographed by the wind.’
Sketch for Oddooki, 2008, by Seung Yul Oh; courtesy of the artist