PukaPuka

Pukapuka is a permanent “lantern” artwork proposed for Real,
the new Auckland Central City Library café.

In many cultures books, texts, scrolls and other written records are
magical objects and artifacts. There is potency inherent in just the
action of opening a book. Pukapuka is five rows of illuminated
books/lanterns suspended at a height of over three and a half meters
above the café floor. Manufactured from formed acrylic sheet and other
materials, and powered by low energy compact fluorescent lamps the
suspended work will invoke images and metaphors of metamorphosis
and transformation. The open, illuminated “books” may recall moths in
flight and associated ideas of “taking flight”, through both the acquisition
of knowledge and the escape possibilities emergent through reading.