Nike Savvas has created an extraordinary new multi-sensory installation in One Queen Street, the public Quay Street entry for the InterContinental Hotel and The Deloitte Centre. This work responds to the concept of Aukaha, a narrative gifted to Precinct by iwi of Tāmaki Makaurau. 

Aukaha denotes a place of convergence and connection.. Tuia te hono, whiria te hono kia ū kia mau - Bind the relationships, weave the connection to be firm and strong. Savvas’s work features 4,420 glass spheres, which unite to create a stronger, beautiful, luminous, blended whole. 

Blues capture the elements of the sea (the powerful Waitematā Harbour and the Tīkapa Moana the Hauraki Gulf), searing blue sky and green coastlines around Tāmaki Makaurau, creating a sense of expansiveness.

In this immersive environment washes of blue and green hues ebb and flow around each other, converging and connecting in reference to Aukaha. Epic: Aukaha, consists of a three-dimensional suspended grid of translucent coloured glass beads. Virtually kinetic, the work is activated by different lines of sight when moving through the space and optically explodes into tangential lines of movement. Encroaching sunlight within the foyer illuminates the coloured spheres to resonate, change and activate the diffused shifting colours of the work throughout the day. In this, illumination is seen as a literal function while also embodying nuanced metaphorical resonance.

The artist would like to thank Precinct’s iwi partners and their establishment of Aukaha as a guiding narrative for this work.

Photography: Melissa Collow. Images courtesy of the artist.