NZ Visual Diary - entry 268
architectural installation - Western Park
John Radford is a New Zealand artist whose sculptural installations explore the attitudinal tensions in contemporary society between the past and present, set in stark contrast by the countervailing forces of heritage preservation and development.
Radford’s work includes a multi-piece installation within Western Park, an urban park that stretches across the Auckland suburbs of Freemans Bay and Ponsonby. The park’s southern border runs along Ponsonby Road.
The park is a place of significance within both the pre-colonial and colonial histories of Tāmaki Makaurau (the Maori place name for Auckland) and Auckland (its European designation):
The park dates back to the late-19th century, and is considered one of the city's most distinguished open spaces.[1] It may be considered Auckland's oldest Municipal park as the Auckland Domain was created by Central Government.[3] The original parcel of land set aside in 1871 consisted of a coffin-shaped wedge going from Ponsonby Road down to Beresford Street, with access to the park being gained from a very narrow frontage on Ponsonby Road. This was land on each side of the stream, which in pre-European times had been called Tuna-Mau by the local Māori, meaning 'the trapping of eels'.[3] The stream was one of several which emptied into Freeman Bay, now reclaimed as Victoria Park.1
Radford’s sculptural installation in Western Park recreates cornices of former buildings along Ponsonby Road and elsewhere in the central district of Auckland. The castings have been partially buried within a section of the park that borders on Ponsonby Road. Of the installation’s narrative, Radford explains:
” The [sculptural] works refer to a loss of our past via the wholesale demolition of parts of Auckland City. Dumped in countless nameless landfills, maybe these multiple architectural dismemberments have undergone a subterranean reassembly and are about to lurch back up out of the ground ” 2
Western Park < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Park,_Auckland >
John Radford website < https://johnradford.co.nz/general-public-artworks/tip/ >