Oceans. Collections. Reflections.

George Nuku braught in the summer of 2022  the latest rendition of his Bottled Ocean concept to the Theseus temple at the Volkgarten. As the title suggests, it is an idea set 100 years in the future. A vision of ocean life fully mutated due to the proliferation of plastics affecting the marine world. The setting inside the Theseus temple, is a submarine sunken temple. The walls lined with carved depictions of divinities representing Water, Air, Earth, Fire, Wind, and Sea interspersed with Ocean guardians. In the underwater temple swim plastic mutated versions of rays, sharks, pelagic fish, and jellyfish among plastic coral reef formations. The empty plastic bottles, transformed into lifeforms of toxic beauty, cause the viewer to be enchanted and disturbed by Nuku’s presentation of pollution as an artistic and cultural treasure. The underlying message conveyed is one of change: changing our relationship with this material we have created that now permeates every part of our world. 

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George Nuku (b. 1964) is currently one of the leading contemporary artist in Aotearoa/New Zealand. He is Māori of Scottish and German descent. George Nuku works with stone, bones, wood, shells, polystyrene, and plexiglas. His works range from delicate, hand-carved amulets made of pearls, jade, bones, and plastic to life-sized sculptures of stone and plexiglas as well as multi-level polystyrene installations representing Polynesian half-gods and heroes from Māori culture. His art form carries forward the tradition of his ancestors that has been passed on for millennia, promising to expand life and improve survival.

Nuku studied art, sociology, geography, and Māori studies at Massey University in New Zealand, deciding that his main interest lay in art, especially sculpture. In the course of his 35-year artistic career, Nuku has created works for museums, art institutions, cultural centres, galleries, traditional Māori cultural spaces, for festivals and for private commissioners. His works have been on show in numerous exhibitions in New Zealand and throughout the world, including, among others, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Taiwan, and New York. The current exhibition at Weltmuseum Wien is George Nuku's first exhibition in Austria.

The ocean is the main theme of George Nuku's exhibition. He ist home to a variety of animals. Be creative and decide what colour a whale, a shark or an octopus have. Click on the individual pictures to download and print them out. Nothing stands in the way of your painting fun.