Koru Glasses
Medium: New Zealand argillite with sand blasted design
Dimensions:54 x 142 x 76 mm
Year: 2005
Sold at the Left Bank Gallery, Greymouth
The Koru design is at the heart of the debate about utilisation of Maori images by artists. New Zealand painter Gordon Walters explored this imagery extensively and this carving is a response to this. New Zealand argillite is another favored but less known stone of ancient Maori.
These are one of a series of ethnoglasses, a vehicle that either blinkers or blinds the viewer by their cultural bias. Sometimes this bias is negative, sometimes positive.