Chris Booth

Earth Water Sun, 2020
Stone, steel
2550 x 180 x 180mm
Price on request

Inspired by playing with river stones in the Kerikeri River when he was a child, Chris Booth began to make land art in the form of large scale boulder columns in 1973. Gateway in Albert Park, Auckland and Rainbow Warrior Memorial, Matauri Bay, Northland are the most well known of these sculptures.

Over 40 years later, Earth, Water, Sun demonstrates this essense of collecting and stacking stones, but this time on a smaller scale. In 1997, Booth gathered river and sea worn stones with his late friend and Kai Tahu Whanui kaumatua, Maurice Nutira, from Taumutu, Canterbury, South Island. As Booth recalls: “He was my kaumatua at Lincoln University when I created Te Paepaetapu o Rakaihautu for Lincoln University (which he named with the head of the Centre for Maori Studies and Research, Maurice Gray), and the Christchurch Seattle Sister City sculpture, Taurapa, in central Christchurch.” Earth, Water, Sun is the only other and last sculpture made from these stones gathered back in 1997.

The result is a assemblage of 90 smooth river stones stacked in an elegant column. Using stones of varying density and volume, there is the impression of an organic and idiosyncratic collection, but they are unified in their restful tones of ash, sand and slate, forming an earthy palette. Nestled within surroundings of neighbouring ferns, nikau palms and lilypads, the structure is subtle and unassuming. Though it stands unwavering, there is the impression that the stones are simply balanced there, and could easily sway in the breeze or tumble to the earth.

Spending longer with the sculpture and walking around it, there is an increased sense of movement within the form, with indications of twisting, turning, tipping and leaning. One feels the presence of the column, its connection to the earth and representation of a local geography - all of which are central to Booth’s work. As curator and art writer Ken Scarlett writes in ‘Woven Stone: The Sculpture of Chris Booth,’ “In spite of the perils of globalisation, with its potential to homogenise us all, Chris Booth adheres to and nurtures a unique personal vision. Stone - that ancient material - comes alive again in his hands.”