Delani is an impressive character. He has the build of the Māori warrior, his bulging arm muscles are a testimony to his craft: here’s a man that can shape a 2-ton piece of wood with his hands! His solemn Māori semblance pierces you with honest looks, he is utterly unpretentious. A master artist, he opens his mouth to speak, and from it comes a deep, syncopated voice.
The experience of nature is at the heart of New Zealand. It is a twofold experience: the wilderness of the South Island, and that of the pruned and cultivated landscapes of the North. New Zealand is the tale of the western settlers, who tried to escape the trials and miseries of industrialisation, and that of the Maōri who struggle to find a place for their worldview in the modern world.
Inland New Caledonia is not exactly what you’d expect of a South Pacific paradise. It is shrubby and, specially in the west, much drier than the rest of the island. Here, a very peculiar cowboy culture has emerged, the Caldoche. Descendants of the original French settlers, the Caldoche manage large cattle ranches and feel at home on horseback.
The adage that it’s about the journey not the destination, was never truer than aboard the Vaka Motu, a traditional canoe that sails between the islands of Vanuatu. Emerging as a project to find green and sustainable transportation in the archipelago, the Vaka draws from local traditions and is true to the designs of old. Not only that, but the trips are full of symbolic and cultural significance.
I am standing in the battlefield surrounded by Hubla warriors armed with spears and bows. My body is painted for war. I am only wearing the traditional koteca, the penis sheath made of cultivated gourd that characterises the tribes of the Baliem Valley in the highlands of Indonesia’s Papua province.
I often laugh at myself, how I make lists for everything. To-do lists, lists that go alphabetically, lists that rhyme and even lists about lists. I’m a list collector… One list demands constant actualization.
Dinosaur Design brings together the art of Stephen Ormandy and the craft of Louise Olsen, the founders and directors of this Australian design brand that has just turned 30
A dozen men-like silhouettes walk through the luminescence of 50,000 spheres of light. Gently rocking in the night breeze of the desert on their fibreglass stems, the spheres dimming from red to blue through purple and white
