Aotearoa New Zealand was a land of birds before humans made their way: The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū

Aotearoa New Zealand was a land of birds before humans made their way to its shores. Hammond simultaneously reflects upon this past, present and future in his own idiosyncratic mash-up of cultural influences – rock music, Japanese ukiyo-e, Chinese painting, ancient Egyptian art and environmental concerns.
A highway bisects the image- was Hammond responding to the proposal to put a road through to connect the top of the West Coast more directly with the Nelson region? a notion that periodically resurfaces. For now, the connection is the Heaphy Track, one of New Zealand’s Great Walks.
On the dark side, in the primordial forest, ghouls lurk and birds fly amongst the ferns and trees in the wet, unceasing greenness of the West Coast. In the light the bird people are tattooed with buildings, aeroplanes and cars, music scores, surveyors notes…
On the dark side, in the primordial forest, ghouls lurk and birds fly amongst the ferns and trees in the wet, unceasing greenness of the West Coast. In the light, the bird people are tattooed with buildings, aeroplanes and cars, music scores, surveyors’ notes……
Bill Hammond (New Zealand, b. 1947- d. 2021), All Along the Heaphy Highway, 1998, Acrylic on canvas. Collection of The Suter Art Gallery Te Aratoi o Whakatū: Purchased with the assistance of the 10 x 10 Acquisition Fund, with the assistance of The Suter’s Patron, Sally Hunt in 2010. Acc: 1108.

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