News
Taranaki, A Tall Poppy
I've made an appointment with Lincoln Raikes of the Normanby company, Global Stainless. My curiosity was aroused reading an article about Indian-British sculptor Anish Kapoor whose work tends to blur the boundary between real and surreal with gigantic structures often using urban settings and distorting them in some way. 'Cloud Gate', the giant mirror "bean" in the Millennium Park in Chicago is a good example. Kapoor is quoted as saying he wants to evoke immateriality and spiritual reactions to his artwork and his visions are partly influenced by Albert Enstein's multi-dimensional world theory. How does that relate to Global Stainless, the small Normanby family business? Well, they created the components for a Kapoor sculpture called 'Tall Tree and The Eye' now residing in the Guggenheim in Bilbao and it seems to me their story fits my research mission like a glove or, as I soon find out, like a seamless Global Stainless sphere.
I'm lucky because when I phone, Bergen - who is one of Lincoln's seven sons - explains that his father will return from a trip to London on the day we wish to meet him. He has gone there to discuss details for another sculpture project commissioned recently. Bergen suggests we email and thus Maurice and I meet with an initially hesitant Lincoln at the workshop, only a few hours after he has landed back home.
Global Stainless is not much more than a few farm-sheds next to the homestead of Lincoln's father. Lincoln explains his reservations especially for having any photos taken by Maurice because his story is all about keeping the faith for years while struggling to put bread on the table for his family. There were times of spending a lot of money on unique processes he had to develop, to manufacture stainless steel forms and curves that are completely seamless and shining to mirror perfection. Both the welding and the polishing of the stainless steel involved inventing processes to bring to life, city landscapes and mirror reflections in a three-dimensional scale.
The way the reflected images are distorted affects and pulls the viewer into the artwork and thereby into a magical world. I'm starting to get what Kapoor is saying about immaterial and spiritual reactions. As we stroll with Lincoln who is not a man of many words, we become more and more enchanted by what he shows us. The effect of looking into the spheres and globes is like being in the interactive section of Te Puke Ariki - art, craft, engineering and philosophy all merge and the laws of physics become blurred as images seem to leap out of their surfaces. It makes you aware that any great artist's vision can only be realised with the help of many nameless and faceless innovators who work behind the scenes.
Scattered all over the workplace are other creative stainless steel objects like the Tin Man's suit Bergen is making because he'll sing in the forthcoming Wizard of Oz production in July in Hawera. In New Zealand, the sculpture park of Alan Gibb's farm north of Auckland houses one of Kapoor's works and it is well worth a visit.
- Copyright - NZ Today. Article by Monica Louis. June/July 2013
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