The Great Plane Race
Peter Robinson
The Great Plane Race
1997/98
wood, fiberglas, Polstermaterial, Veloursamt, plastic eye
4000 x 4230 x 1210 mm
Often bitterly ironic or aggressively humorous Peter Robinson's works of the 1990s have emerged as iconic in contemporary New Zealand art. Around this time questions regarding the efficacy of centralised policy for biculturalism flourished in New Zealand and fittingly Robinson’s works of this period address interracial politics and the commercial consumerism of cultural identity.
The Great Plane Race (1995), a model aeroplane covered in coloured fabric, is a central piece of this period of work and delivers pointed commentary on aspects of cultural exchange in New Zealand history. The red, white and black colour scheme associates the work with post-colonial Maori art and the exotic materials (linen, blankets and velvet) ambiguously suggest the complexities of cultural exchange. Blankets, while a universal symbol of comfort and protection, also played an injurious role in trade between Maori and settlers with damp and infected blankets markedly increasing mortality rates in Maori.
The aeroplane itself is inspired by the Maori religious movement Ratana's interpretation of the plane as a symbol of spiritual leadership, and by the Maori belief that ancestors take their place in the sky. It also references McCahon's 'Jet Out' series of the 1970s which used the plane to represent the soul departing into the afterlife. The stylised form of the plane also suggests the shape of a waka canoe, the historical and mythological bearer of the original ancestors, and a sign of genealogy.
The physical presence of The Great Plane Race, suspended up-side-down from the ceiling recalls European versions of the origins of civilisation, in which the Antipodes were widely understood as being the "wrong way up". (Text by Anna Jackson)