Jim Wheeler

REGENERATION SERIES: Kauri Newel Post, 2011
Bronze
1550 x 450 x 350 mm

Fence and gate posts form a demarcation between nature and the humanised. Domestically and rurally, New Zealand is built from cut, processed wood. The bush often ‘takes back’, - overgrowing buildings and fence lines usually through an owner’s abandonment or neglect. With Jim Wheeler’s Kauri Newel Post, there is some magical realism at work where an industrially processed barrier is undergoing a metamorphosis into its former self. The familiar turned wooden newel post, seen on villa verandas all over the country, is on closer inspection created in bronze with the sprouting shoot atop the work, hinting at its former state.

Posts are potent symbols in New Zealand representing the conquering of nature and ownership of the land. A sprouting post is more than an enigma; it is a metaphor of the power of nature to overcome all obstacles.