'Aotea Squared' - Auckland Arts Festival

Auckland Arts Festival approached us to help curate an art activation 'Aotea Squared'. The title comes from the concept of having a 2.4m squared ply cube erected in Aotea Square in which we progressively paint over 3 days inside the Herald Festival Garden space.

We approached our amazing friend Mike Tupaea to create wheku (a carved representation of a human face) to compliment our art work. Working alongside a group of teenager fathers, Mike created 3 different images that have become the intricate layer underneath our concept of 'Nga hau e Wha' (the 4 winds).

We completed tūāraki (north) and tonga (south) over a few nights during the first week of the Auckland Arts Festival, we will then finish the cube this evening during the White Night event. We had the privilege of sharing this activation with our TMD crew members Benjamin Work & Elliot Francis Stewert whose cubes are also looking amazing, its always fun pushing new boundaries & trying new things!