Bernie Harfleet has won an art award for six sculptures in the form of children’s coffins. The artist is a member of the Habeas Corpus Collective and winner of this year’s Harkness Henry Lawyers Award at the Sculpturepark @ Waitakaruru Arboretum. His winning piece is titled ‘Bears’ and references the song ‘ if you go down to he woods today…’

The curator, Rob Garrett was delighted to accept work by this collective who make art works that address global violence (wars), economic inequalities and hardship, domestic violence, and violence towards children and other forms of child abuse.

Harfleet has made six coffins, each representing an actual New Zealand child who has been killed at the hands of one or more people who were responsible for their care and up bringing. Each coffin has a simple plaque made of metal with the child’s details, but without names, stamped into them. They are a bit like the identification details stamped into a soldier’s “dog tag”.

Curator Rob Garrett says “The irony here of course, is that unlike soldiers who are trained to put themselves in harm’s way, these children were the unwilling and unwitting victims of violent caregivers and a dysfunctional society. The sculptures are beautiful and yet tragic memorials to lost lives and a reminder to adults of their responsibilities.”

The award panel consisted of Penny Jackson (Tauranga Art Gallery), Rob Garrett (curator) and Lynden Earl (Harkness Henry Lawyers).

Penny Jackson found Bernie’s work emotive and edgy, “the setting is so picturesque and tranquil, yet the lives these children led was the opposite. It's as if these deceased children, for which the coffins are symbols, never got to play innocent games or just run free without other factors, or people, unsettling them. They didn't get those good old kiwi childhoods that we're suppose to proffer in this so-called 'land of milk and honey'. It's a very powerful installation and the way the coffins are arranged in a one-way line, making you walk by each and every one, reinforces the enormity of the problem. The day after judging three pages in the Sunday Star Times was devoted to violence against children in NZ. Bernie Harfleet's work is both touching and topical. Bears 1-6 is not a pretty picture, it's not meant to be.”

Bernie’s work is one part of the collective’s offering and sits alongside the work of Jude Nye and Donna Sarten, each tackling the theme of abused and disadvantaged children in their own unique way.

Altogether there are 27 new sculptures by 24 artists in the exhibition. The selection of works is enormously varied. There are some that are in bright single colours that stand out against the vegetation, rock and soil. Others contrast through their large size or their incongruous form: “what’s a dolphin doing here; or a whale for that matter?” Still others suggest fanciful worlds that might help transport the imagination: spiraling butterflies cut from steel or those suggesting secret gardens, mysterious, disturbing or spiritual places.

Each artwork has been placed carefully so as to present the natural variety of the Park in a new light. Among the surprises are several works that reference or actually make sounds as well as kinetic works.

'Sculpture in the Park' runs until the 28th February at The Sculpture Park @ Waitakaruru Arboretum, 207 Scotsman Valley Road, Tauwhare, 15 kms east of Hamilton. The park is open 7 days a week from 10.00am until dusk.