Hobsonville sculpture project
This sculpture is destined to be suspended high up in the open space at the Bomb Point engine testing bay's concrete "bunker" at Hobsonville Point, where seventy years ago the highly organised air force hung powerful engines of fighter planes for inspection and testing.
Positioning such a modern, clean-lined sculpture within the ancient looking concrete frame is intended to do justice to the heritage of the building as well as referencing current activities and pointing the way forward.
The current residential development at Hobsonville means the energy of this area is undergoing massive transformation, changing the story of potential high discipline, destruction and war, to one of peaceful community growth and creativity.
In addition, Kaipataki Project, an environmental centre on Auckland's North Shore has been a key stakeholder in the Bomb Point area, with a grass-roots, volunteer native plant nursery installed there to support the coastal restoration work going on around the point.
Kaipataki Project approached Rene Jansen with the proposal of adding an unusual element to the old building to make it come alive.
Rene has created a sculpture as a permanent installation and reference point for the new use of the facility and area for the future community.
Rene designed a starkly contrasting contemporary element to enhance the heavy, brooding antiquity and aged surfaces intrinsic to the existing structure, which creates a strong dichotomy.
His geometric approach holds tension between the concept of explosion and structure, expansion and containment. Circular it also simply represents the seasonal and life cycles in nature, and community cohesion. The three-dimensional circular repeating process inherent in the chemical reactions of a bomb exploding. In addition, the idea of small patterns repeating to form a larger entity is representative of organic growth processes in the germination of a seed, and in the growth of a new community.
Andrea Hunt, Kaipataki Environmental Centre 2015