Wanganui park

item details

NameWanganui park

ProductionHaruhiko Sameshima; photographer; 1994; Whanganui

Classificationlandscapes, black-and-white prints, gelatin silver prints, black-and-white photographs, works of art

Materialsphotographic gelatin, silver, photographic paper

Materials Summaryblack and white photographic diptych, gelatin silver prints

Techniquesblack-and-white photography, toning

DimensionsImage: 563mm (width), 444mm (height)

Registration NumberO.027376

Credit linePurchased 2001 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds

Overview

This black and white photographic diptych was taken by Haruhiko Sameshima in 1994. The photographs represent a children's concrete tunnel in Kowhai Park, Wanganui. The tunnel passes through a generic representation of a mountain, which bears a certain resemblance to Ruapehu in the Tongariro National Park. The diptych format of Sameshima's photograph emphasises the two peaks of the concrete mountain. The photographer's shadow is located on the left of the image, alongside the shadows of trees cast by the setting sun.

Picturing New Zealand
Kowhai Park, Wanganui is part of an ongoing photographic project called eco-Tourism, which Sameshima began in 1994. He had returned to Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland University in order to develop his knowledge of New Zealand photography, and his Master of Fine Arts proposal involved visiting museums around the country with significant photographic collections. He would view the collections, familiarising himself with the history of New Zealand photography, and at the same time take photographs of the museums and galleries in which the images were held. As well, Sameshima would photograph everyday subjects - such as the concrete tunnel in Kowhai Park, Wanganui - using an aesthetic approach that made references to the photographs he was seeing in museum and gallery collections.

Taking the view
Kowhai Park, Wanganui is one of a series of large-format photographs that Sameshima produced as part of eco-Tourism. Other examples in Te Papa's collection include Castlecliff, Wanganui (1994), another diptych, and Queens Park (1995). In the series, Sameshima deliberately engages with the characteristics of the photographs he was viewing in institutional collections, as well as making reference to his contemporary photographic colleagues. Kowhai Park, Wanganui is on the one hand a nod to the tradition of scenic photographs of mountains in New Zealand, in which a panorama captures the majesty of the landscape. On the other hand, it also makes a sly reference to Mark Adams, a friend and colleague of Sameshima's, who is well known for his landscape photographs. But in typical Sameshima fashion, his subject renders both references tongue-in-cheek. Never has a children's playground looked so attractive, or so historical.