Click any image to view full-size
Marté Szirmay - Yantra for Mahana
Marté Szirmay’s massive Yantra for Mahana stands at the entrance to the winery and is the first sight of Woollaston Estates for visitors approaching from the Moutere Hill route. Standing seven and a half metres tall and constructed from over 40 tonnes of cor-ten steel, the massive sculpture incorporates Buddhist and Christian symbolism and is aligned with Mt Arthur (Wharepapa, the sacred mountain of local iwi).
YANTRA is a sanskrit word meaning instrument, machine or loom. Buddhists use it to refer to any device used in meditation. Marté explains “the interlocking matrix of geometric forms focuses ones spiritual and mental energies – a meditation tool. The large upright cross grasps or shelters the triangular centre essence – the heart. The repeating four armed crosses represent the four elements of earth, air, fire and water as well as the fundamental aspects of the human psyche – thought, emotion, intuition and the senses. The crosses are also emblems of totality; universality, the four directions of space. (N W E S – the four cornered earth). The steps represent progress and the stages of transformation. Why steel? Iron carries oxygen in blood. Iron is a transient metal (cobalt & nickel are others), it can produce a magnetic field.”
Yantra for Mahana was commissioned by Woollaston Estates for the site. As Philip Woollaston says “it is not only rich in associations, Yantra is visually very rich as well. The play of light on the intricate shapes constantly changes – there are no two instants in a year when the shadows fall the same – and the colour also changes with the weather. It is a delight to see the pupils from Mahana school (who have a special relationship with the sculpture) stop to gaze at it on their way home.”
Hungarian born, Marté Szirmay came to New Zealand with her family via Hungarian refugee camps in 1957 and her work is clearly influenced by her adopted homeland. Her first public commission, in 1969, was a stainless steel form that stands in Lumsden Green in Newmarket, Auckland. She has staged 35 solo exhibitions, completed 17 public commissions and her work is in private collections in Australia, Britain, Hungary, Sweden, Italy and the United States.
The sculpture was constructed on the vineyard property by local craftsman Michael Newman and his son Koss.
