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Bill Culbert; artist; 1991
Overview
Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert’s installation illuminates a passage through the gallery, marked out with pāua shells. ‘Aramoana’ in literal translation is 'line to the sea, ' with the ara being the line. Aramoana is also a place in Dunedin.
Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert were among those who protested against a proposed aluminium smelter at Aramoana. They feared it would devastate the local environment. The artists’ working drawings for this installation include lines from a poem by John Caselberg: ‘There is a rock to guard every sacred harbour in New Zealand. It but waits its hour.’