John Hurrell – 22 November, 2010

Outside Te Tuhi, on the public front lawn between Michael Parekowhai’s giant coloured Cuisenaire blocks (Atarangi 11) and A.D. Schierning’s modest Freedom Fruit Garden of lemon trees, Richard Orjis has constructed an unusual botanical sculpture that strangely connects with his recent gallery-exhibited digital ‘collages’ and public performances that feature wigs and images of dangling straggly streamers.

Orjis’ outdoor sculpture is about process and the passing of time, but without the overt community emphasis of the Schierning or Parekowhai projects. However it does make us notice their physical changes, especially the subtle deterioration of the Parekowhai work, for it is about nature itself.

Inside a large ring rimmed by a flat concrete border Orjis lets kaihui grass and intruding weeds grow uncut, unweeded and unsprayed for a whole year. Within this entangled morass of rampant, unchecked vegetation - before it finally gets dismantled, ripped up and resown - wild flowers, thistles and grasses will flourish and seed, jeopardising the impeccable lawn around its edges, providing food for breeding insects, and low shelter for visiting birds or the occasional small rodent.

As the uncontrolled plants grow the disc-like work will acquire an unruly shape, thatched density and irregular height - a ‘flying freak flag’: to quote Jimi Hendrix’s vivid description of his own long hair. Without the officially set period of allocated time the gesture probably would be declared a fire hazard or public eyesore. As it is now, it is regarded as a special reserve, a cultivated ‘natural’ wilderness that develops a personality of its own, an artwork that mirrors the ecological interest of the community that encircles it and tolerantly permits its existence.

John Hurrell

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