Artwork information

Early in 1968, Rita Angus travelled by bus from Wellington to Napier. This city had been her child-hood home. Arriving at Napier, she saw the shapes A and D over the sea, formed by two adjacent clouds. Later, on Napier's seashore, she found a water-eroded wooden branch in the shape of the number 1. Then, while visiting Napier's aquarium, she saw two sea horses swimming back-to-back. Their coming together formed the numbers 9 and 6. Finally, at Petone while returning home to Wellington, she saw freestanding oil-tanks that that created a joined silhouette of the number 8. From a confluence of objects identifying 1968, Rita Angus created a lyrical monument to her recently deceased father that also serves as a symbolic self-portrait. Ron Brownson, Hei Konei Mai (2006)