Facets: Overall Winner, Driftwood and Sand 2024

Hokitika Beach came alive again in the last week of January 2024 for the Driftwood and Sand Beach Art Festival.

Sunday 21 January: Scoping the Beach

On my first exploratory walk along the beach, I looked for inspiration and materials. There was not much large driftwood, but there were plenty of smaller, scrappy pieces, so I decided to create something using small sticks.

I have always liked polygons, networks, and tessellations—a throwback to my past life as a maths teacher. The next challenge was how to join the sticks. I brought a few home, drilled small holes in each end, and connected them with narrow strips of harakeke (NZ flax).

Monday 22 January: Collecting Sticks

The idea seemed to work, so I returned to the beach to collect more sticks. At first glance there appeared to be masses of them, but finding pieces of the right length and sturdy enough for drilling proved more challenging than I had expected.

Back home, I drilled holes in the ends of the sticks and joined several together to make a small trial network of triangles.

Wednesday 24 January: First Official Day of the Festival

I then turned to the question of how to use the net. I searched the beach for larger driftwood that could become part of the sculpture and tried draping my sample over several pieces, including one very large log surrounded by water at high tide. Against those backgrounds, however, the net disappeared. I realised it needed to be installed with open space behind and in front of it. One piece of driftwood, about four metres long, was ideal. I tied the sample to one end and began growing the work in place, knotting each stick before tying it to the next. At each node, six or seven sticks came together.

A second piece of driftwood I had considered still fascinated me as a standalone work. I stood it up further along the beach again near the high tide line, burying the end in the sand. This became “Ascension”.

Thursday 25 January: The Sculpture Grows

I returned to the beach in the morning. At first, I thought the end of the driftwood frame was buried in the sand, but after clearing material from around it, I discovered it was only resting on the surface. As I sat facing the sea and worked, I noticed the tide getting closer and closer. I called my husband to help move the frame. It was too heavy to carry, but together we managed to screw it around and shift it beyond the high-tide line. I worked on the beach for the rest of the day.

Friday 26 January: Facets Completed

As usual, lots of people stopped to talk with me as I worked, and I really enjoyed that interaction with the public. I was given many ideas for names, including “Whitebait Net” and “Whale”, but I had not set out to make a particular thing; the triangular network was what mattered to me. I initially registered the work as Kupenga (net), but then changed it to Facets, as intended all along. By the end of Friday afternoon, I had completed the sculpture. Heavy rain and big seas were forecast overnight, but I was comfortable with the location.

When the rain began at about 10 pm and continued for several hours, I had a restless night imagining what might be happening to the sculpture, especially around midnight at high tide.

Saturday 27 January: Challenges from Nature

At about 8 am, I drove to the beach in sunshine, wondering what I would find. Both sculptures were absolutely fine, but the sea was boiling and seething with large pieces of wood washed down the adjacent Hokitika River overnight. I had never seen it so wild.

Over the next four hours, as the tide came in, driftwood began piling up on the beach in front of the sculptures and creeping closer. It was nerve-racking. Near high tide, a large wave washed past Facets but did no damage. People were ready to help me move it, but I decided to leave it in place, lifting it slightly off the sand so water and debris could pass beneath. I spent the rest of the afternoon clearing driftwood from the front—partly for appearance, but mainly to reduce the risk of debris damaging the sculpture if more waves washed through.

Sunday 28 January: Exciting Day

Despite the continuing big seas, both sculptures had withstood the elements. Before judging began, I did some more clearing around them.

Facets was awarded the judge’s special prize for “Marriage of Concept and Craft” by guest judge and sculptor Mark Whyte, and was then named the overall winner for the second year in a row.

Afterwards: Relocating and Repairing the Sculptures

In the following week, I checked the sculptures regularly. After two weeks, however, I discovered some damage to Facets—intentional, I think. The tides were still quite high, so I decided to take Ascension home.

I repaired the damage at the time and need to do this occasionally as the harakeke disintegrates in the weather.

Update

But four months later, “Facets’ is still standing and drawing the attention of locals and visitors to the beach.