Take a walk on the wild side

Ancestral Light by Tui Hobson. Photo / Supplied

From an award-winning punga log, made of cast bronze, to a wooden, giant texting rabbit, the Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens is a collection of diverse and intriguing artworks worth investigating. The exhibition has brought together the works of 20 leading New Zealand artists and placed them in and around the 64 hectares of gardens and native bush that is the Auckland Botanic Gardens. Here is a taste of what you'll find.

This year's McConnell Property Supreme Award winner is After the Flood by artist Christine Hellyar. The piece is a coloured cast bronze imaginary creature with nine similar smaller creatures spaced out along its back. The eyes of these animals are made of red glass, reminiscent of the eyes of dragons in early Chinese bronzes. The piece aims to draw attention to what we know about plants and animals travelling great distances on drifting wood.

The judges of the event - Leo Jew, Alexa Johnson and Lisa Reihana - describe the work as being "the complete opposite of a traditional imposing public sculpture. Walk into the Threatened Native Plants area of the gardens and you will find it luring shyly at your feet on the white shell path."

Meanwhile, Tui Hobson's striking Ancestral Light consists of three macrocarpa bone-like shapes that explore the significance of ancient rocks and prehistoric forms in the present day landscape. The artist explains: "The wisdom and spirituality that emanates from such ancient forms is to be respected as we take a journey back to the beginning of human existence." The pieces play with shadows and light and at night appear to float, when the poles they are standing on disappear in the dark.

Invercargill artist Phil Newbury has been working with glass since 1966 and his piece Intensified Rain takes inspiration from the form of a skeletal leaf. Steel bars form its central structure while glass and crystal dishes represent rain spots that appear on a leaf in nature.

The wonderfully titled Caught in the Act of Losing You by artist Colleen Ryan-Priest pays hommage to the giant cane rush Sporadanthus ferrugineus. Eleven blades of steel with cast glass seed heads grow out of a pool of water - arching and bending in the wind. As the programme for the exhibition says, the rushes "reflect the intense quality of light that emanates from sky and water alike and reminds us of the clear, refractive characteristics and value of water in a wetland".

Bing Dawes' series, A landscape with too many holes, Wishing for St Francis is laser-cut steel and bronze and reflects the artist's interest in our native flora and fauna. The sculpture works to represent the real and potential loss caused by humans.

Around a stylised tree trunk, birds swirl and posture, forming and replacing the trees branches and canopy. The shapes of the birds are cut out of the plate to record the loss or, as the artist describes it, "holes in the landscape, while those remaining peel out in three dimensional symmetry to remind us of the beauty and value of those remaining."

•Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens exhibition runs until February 14 next year, at the Auckland Botanical Gardens, Hill Rd, Manurewa. Open daily 8am-8pm. Entry is free.