In the public domain: Paul Baragwanath
Baragwanath at Arttform Studio with Sara Hughes’ painting Hacker.
The South British Insurance Company building is home to Ahota’e’iloa Toetu’u’s Moana.
Peata Larkin’s Piki Ake_Rise Up is installed at the ANZ Centre.
Arttform’s Paul Baragwanath is an expert in commissioning large-scale artworks for commercial, public spaces. Here, he discusses his trade with Emil McAvoy.
Emil McAvoy (EM): How do you go about selecting artists to fit a client brief?
Paul Baragwanath (PB): It’s critical to get the brief right. This comes back to really understanding the client, who might be an individual or a team. Requirements for an artwork are often contradictory! It’s a matter of working those through.
The next step is to define the role of the artwork precisely. What does it need to do? How should the artwork make you feel? Should it be calm and restful or high energy? Should it command you to Stop! Look! Listen! or should it imperceptibly infuse the space with its gentle presence?
Another critical factor is to determine the physical requirements of the artwork. Does it need to be sufficiently robust to withstand the odd bump or knock? These are not gallery environments. What are the weight considerations? Also, what is the material palette of the architecture? Particularly in high-end corporate spaces, the finishes – floors, walls, ceilings, fittings – set a high bar for the production values of the artwork.
EM: What has been your favourite special project to date?
PB: That’s hard! Every project is unique because that’s the nature of art. A project can be interesting on paper but what makes it great is the people. The other thing is that commissioning artwork is very much a collaborative process.
Arttform plays a role in the artistic direction, from the artwork proposal through to aesthetic factors such as scale, proportion, colour palette, tone and samples development. We also input into the practical aspects of integration into the architecture, including installation strategy, lighting, maintenance and so forth.
Precinct Properties’ ANZ Centre on Albert Street, Auckland, was a rewarding project. The artworks we commissioned for the lobby include Piki Ake_Rise Up, the largest illuminated painting that artist Peata Larkin has created. The challenge there had been to transform what was once a back-of-house space into a beautiful, front-of-house art experience.
EM: Arttform recently presented Moana, a large wall painting by Tongan artist Ahota’e’iloa Toetu’u currently on display at the South British Insurance Company building on Shortland Street in Auckland. I enjoy the way the repeating geometric design of Moana envelops the viewer’s vision across the curved wall and draws you further in. What other feedback has the work received so far?
PB: People are loving this artwork. It has the Pow! factor. When have you seen anything like it in the Auckland CBD? Briefing the artist, we were clear that he should really own the space. The work will exist for six months before the space is returned to white and a new artwork commissioned. We are coming into spring and it’s been a long, wet winter – so, go for gold and turn up the volume! This was an opportunity for Loa to scale up his art practice to architectural proportions – and to inject the colour and spirit of Tonga into this historic Auckland lobby.
EM: Before this, the lobby art project featured works by Sara Hughes, Billy Apple, Weilun Ha, etc. What are the contractual arrangements with the artists?
PB: Clear agreements are an important part of any artwork commission. The best agreements are concise. With any commissioned piece, there is a leap of faith for all involved. It comes down to good relationships and that means keeping your eye on the goal, which is to bring great artworks into being. For a temporary project, it’s important to capture the artwork for posterity. This project does that. For instance, we commission postcards of every artwork.
EM: What has been the most challenging project you’ve worked on?
PB: The Art of Remembrance project was probably the hardest! It meant personally borrowing $150,000 over a period of just two weeks to bring into being 7,000+ lacquered, hand-screen-printed brass artworks, plus to install them somehow onto the historic Kamo Brick and Oamaru Stone façades of St David’s. This way, the platform was created to share the project and sell the artworks across New Zealand and internationally.
Hundreds of volunteers were brought together along with businesses and other entities that stepped up. People said to me, “New Zealanders don’t get abstract art” and “if they are commemorative art objects, they must be poppy red”. Luckily, they were wrong! Thanks to the gift of Max Gimblett ONZM, and his gallerist Gow Langsford, and to the work of hundreds and support of thousands, we raised a record $1,000,000.
This article first appeared in Interior magazine.
