David James
If you ask someone for the definition of art, most of us would prefer to conjure up words and thoughts about things that hang on walls in museums and galleries; stuffy opening exhibits with wine and cheese; and patrons with with big pocketbooks.
Indeed, in this post-modern era the value of an artwork – its price tag – typically contributes to the aura of the piece, sometimes more that its aesthetic qualities.
We should remember that long before art became a secular and monetarised specimen of human culture, our creative activities held a cosmological significance.
Artwork is often found to be actively purposeful within a spiritual context.
Thus, it’s OK to venture off the beaten track to check some of the more hidden gems that the Marlborough art world has to offer.
Museums and galleries are great, but there’s a little chapel at the Wairau Hospital, in Blenheim, which is ornamented with some of the finest woodwork pieces you can find in the region.
The traditional Maori carvings, such as the poupou, made by master carver Reg Thompsett tell a story about the spiritual connection between people and place.
In the symbolic tradition, the poupou are panels usually carved with representations of ancestral figures that are meaningful to the carver or iwi related to a marae. At the Wairau Hospital chapel, the poupou stands tall next to the cross, the traditional symbol of Christianity.
‘‘Here we have the cross that reminds us that there is a God that provides, and here we have a pou right next to it that tells a similar story,’’ Wairau Hospital Maori chaplain Rev Canon Mabel Grennell says.
‘‘Some churches might not accept the placement of a poupou within the building, but you could go to that same church and find photos hanging, and what’s the difference?
‘‘Photographs are talking about something in time, and basically those are the stories. People get out a photo, and you tell a story about that picture. Our carvings are like that. They’re not to be hidden, they need to be out in the open.’’
Master carver Reg Thompsett says the carving is relevant to the hospital.
‘‘Every single part of this carving represents healing. This here is the migration of the birds which helps us with direction, and these here are the crumbs travelling up from the giving of bread and wine.
‘‘At the bottom of the carving is Mother Earth and Sky Father. So everything is spiritual ... But only in our eyes. Nothing has been written down. That’s why you will never find this in a book anywhere. For me to explain it to anyone over the phone, I was like ‘no way’. You have to stand in