The name of this art project is Te Au Nui, the traditional name for the Mataura Falls in Southland in New Zealand’s South Island. In te reo Māori it means “big swirling waters”.

Te Au Nui is an exploration of the many layers of the rich historical, cultural and environmental tapestry of the falls. Geography is a state of mind as much as a place, and place is a palimpsest of layers, interpretations, overwriting and erasures. The project delves into the multifaceted layers of meaning and interconnectedness, viewed through a fictive scrim of figuration and abstraction, offering a meditation on the past, present, and future of this amazing natural phenomenon.

Te Au Nui is an act of psychogeography, unravelling the interplay of human activity and the underlying rhythms of the natural world, from its use by Māori as a source of kanakana (lampreys) for food, to the nineteenth century dynamiting of fifteen metres off the top to power the Mataura Paper Mill and the Mataura Freezing Works. That event reshaped the ecological and cultural context of the location. These artworks juxtapose the organic and mechanical through to highlight the delicate balance between progress and preservation. They construct their own mythology, based in water as a symbolic source of life and force for change in the eternal Shiva-dance of creation and destruction.

McLachlan’s studio overlooks the Mataura River. His creative process parallels the human history of the area, combining art, painting and carving machines to incise lines and carve surfaces that reflect a similarly enduring human imprint on the landscape. Te Au Nui draws us in with the aesthetic vision and asks us to contemplate how we shape the environment into the future at a deeper, mythic and spiritual level.

andrew paul wood