Monday 12 December 2011

Travel diary 1 - In Akaroa: the Giant's house


out of the cracked plate...

Well, its been a while, but its good to be back. I have been away from my computer for two weeks, and to make up for it I will write and make art in response to my time away. I am going to start with this amazing artist's garden that I visited in Akaroa, NZ. The drawing above is attempting to show how the mosaic sculptures emerged from the artist finding broken shards of crockery in her garden: 'From little things, big things grow...'

The Giant's House in Akaroa, near Christchurch, was an amazing surprise at the start of our family holiday in New Zealand. Artist Josie Martin has created a fantastically creative and humorous mosaic garden in the grounds which surround her 1881 Akaroa home. 

Josie - photo by Fedinand Graf Luckner
Mosaic artist Josie Martin, photo from her website

In a DVD which was playing in the gallery, Josie describes how when she was gardening (she has also studied horticulture) she started finding pieces of broken crockery in the earth, which gave her the idea of creating mosaics - and she has hardly stopped since. The huge terraced garden has been beautifully landscaped, and filled with giant sized concrete human figures which have been covered with coloured mosaics (broken or cut pieces of ceramics). The garden structures and furniture (walls, benches, steps, public toilet, even a piano) have also been mosaic-ed, so the overall effect is quite astounding. Its like being in another, more magical world. 





Apparently you can also stay in the house, Linton, as it is a B & B. Here are some more photos (I took hundreds).





For something completely different, here is a link to Charlie Brooker's annual review of 2011. Another Guardian writer who puts things nicely into perspective.

Also, I have now had 1,499 views of this blog so far, hopefully I can make it to 1,500 today!

more later.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

Oh that looks amazing! I love places like that - very outsider art-ish, but from the photos it seems more tasteful than that usually is. The piano is gorgeous! I've had a longtime goal to visit Chandigarh rock garden, but I doubt I ever will. The Giant's House looks a lot more achievable.

Claire Edwards said...

Hi Amanda - yes it was amazing - and she manages to avoid being too kitschy - will try to get more of the photos uploaded over the xmas break. And its only a 3 hour flight to Christchurch...

ylenkinski said...

I just came back from Australia and New Zealand and had the chance to see this garden and meet Josie. It was AMAZING and worth the trip down under all on its own. It is awesome beyond belief.