Maunga by Shane Cotton

Created by the talented artist Shane Cotton, this magnificent five-storey high permanent artwork can be found on the corner of Customs Street East and Commerce Street in Britomart.

Maunga was actually brought to life from a series of 25 works on paper, with the help of artists Ross Liew, Nicholas Boyd, and Margarita Vovna who blew it up to building size! The pot forms depicted in the artwork are a reference to objects that appeared in painted wharenui in 19th-century Aotearoa during a period of great experimentation in Māori art that followed the availability of European materials and techniques.

And guess what? Each pot in the artwork bears the name of a maunga (mountain), which reinforces the city's role as a place where people from all over the country come together.

Maunga was commissioned with the assistance of curator Nigel Borell for the 2020 exhibition Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art. Pretty amazing, right?