Whangārei artist Briar van Ameringen's Night Watcher kiwi is one of many currently scattered throughout the central city as part of a visiting art trail.
Whangārei artist Briar van Ameringen's Night Watcher kiwi is one of many currently scattered throughout the central city as part of a visiting art trail.
If you’re wondering why there are suddenly kiwi in central Whangārei, it’s because they’re part of an art show that’s landed in the city.
The touring event, called the Kiwi Art Trail, is a collection of more than 20 kiwi sculptures transformed into bespoke art pieces by numerous New Zealand artists, including locals Briar van Ameringen and Jess Card.
The art trail is a free, family-friendly activity that started in Whangārei on January 6 and will continue for about three weeks until February 10. It’s for a good cause: when the event finishes, the sculptures will be auctioned and the proceeds given to kiwi conservation efforts.
Twenty large, stylised kiwi sculptures, each decorated by a different artist, have been scattered about the Town Basin and through Whangārei’s central business district.
Van Ameringen’s Night Watcher kiwi can be spotted on Rust Avenue and Card’s Technicolour Kiwi starts the trail at Hīhīaua Peninsula.
Van Ameringen, a graphic artist and digital designer by day, said she had been exploring painting and printmaking in recent years.
She lives in the Whangārei Heads area and has the privilege of regularly bumping into kiwi and hearing their calls at night.
“These birds of the night often keep themselves camouflaged within their environment and the night to keep away from predators such as dogs, cats, rats and stoats,” van Ameringen said.
The design she chose for her kiwi “highlights the vulnerability of the kiwi but also celebrates their skilful nature of keeping hidden within their environment”, she said.
“The bright colours of the day contrast against the shapes and eyes hidden in the night.
“It’s a playful and vibrant piece to add to your garden space,” van Ameringen said.
Jess Card overlaid more than 30 native plant designs to achieve this layered shimmering look on his kiwi, the surface of which he wanted to be reminiscent of sunlight glinting through a forest canopy.
Card is an installation artist and nature lover who lives at Maunu. He bought a property there in 2022, with the aim of recreating a native forest that once stood there.
He said he wanted his Technicolour Kiwi work on the trail to encourage people to think about our complex ecosystems and our place within them.
The surface treatment of his kiwi was designed to be “reminiscent of sunlight glinting through forest canopy, shadows and light dance across a shimmering surface to reveal the layered, imperfect beauty of nature’s design”.
“More than 30 native plants lend their silhouettes to the work, each overlapping form creating a chaotic dialogue of colour and texture.
“Like the messy, interwoven threads of an ecosystem, these shapes merge and collide, reflecting the interconnected and even adversarial roles that each element plays in sustaining the whole,” Card said.
The Kiwi Art Trail is brought to Whangārei by Gallagher Insurance and Save the Kiwi in partnership with Whangārei District Council.
The event ran for the first time in Auckland during 2023, then went on tour in October, last year – first to Tauranga then Napier, before arriving here for January and February. After its Northland stint, the show returns to Auckland.
Anyone who wants to walk the trail in Whangārei can pick up a map (with a colouring competition on the back) from Kiwi North, Te Iwitahi (civic centre), Central Library, Gala, NorthAble, Hundertwasser Art Centre, Claphams National Clock Museum, Whangārei Art Museum, Burning Issues Gallery or Reyburn House, or download one from the Kiwi Art Trail website.
