Flight Plan

A bird’s-eye view is an imaginary way of looking and has been used by New Zealand artists to create works which address the land and its inhabitants. During the early 19th century, amateur artists adopted this perspective and the watercolours they produced are New Zealand’s first aerial panoramas.

A century later, in Takaka: night and day, 1948 Colin McCahon also looked at place from above, showing time changing across an expanse of land. McCahon again adopted a high vantage point in Rocks at French Bay, 1959, but combined multiple views across and above Manukau Harbour so that close-up and distant scenes coalesce.

Different degrees of elevation and strong points of view in paintings by Gretchen Albrecht, John Reynolds and Stephen Bambury evoke changing light, movement and mapping, while demonstrating a marked evolution towards abstract representations of place and events.

Jim Allen wrote that his Light Modulator, 2012 was ‘based on an abstraction of a torso figure shape’. He suggests that looking at form, shape and volume can create a ‘flight plan’ towards the body.

Flight Plan shows the role of perspective in the representation of time, light, motion, land and people.

 

Te Rere Arorangi

Ko te tā whātaretare-a-manu tētahi pūkenga i whakamahi ai ngā ringa toi o Niu Tireni hei hopu i te hangahanga o te whenua me ngā tāngata o runga. I te rau tau tekau mā iwa, i whai ngā torekaihuruhuru i tēnei pukenga, ā, ko ngā peita wai ka hua mai, ko ngā whakaahua arorangi matawhānui tuatahi ki Niu Tireni.

Ko te rau tau i whai atu, i Takaka: night and day, i te tau 1948 i tā whakaahua arorangi anō hoki a Colin McCahon ki a Wāhi, ka tohu i te whakawhanaketanga o te wā i te matawhānuitanga o te whenua.

Ko McCahon anō i whakamahi ai te whakaahua arorangi ki āna tā whakaahua i Rocks at French Bay, 1959, ka whakakotahitia ngā tirohanga maha ki te moana o Manukau kia noho tahi ai te pae tata me te pae tawhiti.

Mai i ngā taumata maha, me te mārake o ngā tirohanga whakararo i tā whakaahua ai a Gretchen Albrecht rātou ko John Reynolds ko Stephen Bambury kia mau ai te haereere, te nekenekehanga o te tūrama, me te tohu anō hoki i te whanaketanga o te āhuatanga o te whenua me ngā whakaaturanga.

E ai ki te tuhinga o Jim Allen, ko tāna Light Modulator, 2012 he mahi ‘based on an abstraction of a torso figure shape’. Ko tāna i whakapae ai, mā te hanga, te āhua me te rahi ka taea te hanga tētahi ‘flight plan’ ki te tinana. 

E whakatauira ana a Flight Plan i te hua o te whakataurite i roto i ngā tohu o te wā, o te marama, o te nekeneke, o te whenua me ngā tāngata.