White Noise (part 1)

Title: White Noise
Year: 2011
Dimensions: Variable
Technique: 500 white flags installed by Auckland’s citizens
Exhibition: Auckland Festival
Place: Te Henga (Bethell beach)- Auckland ‘“ New Zealand

On 26 February 2011 the public was invited to spend a day on New Zealand’™s Te Henga / Bethells Beach, to assist the artist in planting 500 white flags in the sand. At the close of the day, the flags were removed and brought to the city to be re-installed in an enclosed space.

Both a simple piece of visual and auditory poetry and a gesture toward the complex history of public protests and engagement with land, foreshore, and public space in New Zealand, White Noise responds to the specific location of Auckland and the site of Bethells Beach

By the time of the British colonization of New Zealand white flags were used as landmark to delimit land ownership.

During the day of the action at Te Henga / Bethells Beach a spontaneous symbolic gesture occurred, when a Māori Tino Rangatiratanga flag was briefly planted amongst the white flags by a visitor to the beach. This flag has a significant history as a symbol of Māori ambitions for self-determination and land rights, flown over the years at many protests. It reinforces the politician-criticisms intentions of the White Noise.

Special thanks to: Ariane Craig-Smith, Gabrielle Amodeo, Simon Glaister, Sam Hamilton, Amarbir Singh, Mark Ruka, Mei Cooper, Alex Campbell, Heather Crawcour, Michelle Beattie, Loren Marks, Nastashia Simeona, Sarah Carson, Anya Zvezdina, Chanel Breen, Louise Tu‘u, Rose Meyer, Victoria Szerdi, Fiona Wilson, Elena Wenn, Ada Leung