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An edited version of this article appeared in the World Sculpture News, vol 8, no. 1, winter 2002 under the title "Communication and Celebration". The author is Dr Cassandra Fusco, a freelance writer from Christchurch, New Zealand.
On the threshold of a new century, as part of a policy committed to reform and opening-up to the outside world, the city of Changchun in north eastern China has inaugurated a series of sculpture symposium to facilitate and encourage cultural exchanges, based on the continuing theme of Friendship, Peace and Spring.
 Early in 2001, one of New Zealand’s most respected senior Maori artists was invited to participate in the fifth China Changchun International Sculpture Symposium. John Bevan Ford is perhaps most widely known for his marvellous kahu (cloak) works, both on paper and in fine rug editions with the Dilana Studio of Christchurch. John Bevan Ford, however, is also a master carver. Perhaps his most commonly known work is the tall blue figure of Ko Kupe (1992), outside the old Museum of New Zealand and examples of both his 3-D and 2-D works are held in all the major city galleries.
‘The invitation,” the artist explains, “came as something of a surprise, a most pleasant one I might add. The organizing Committee’s formal invitation (which came to me via email and not from any internal body in NZ) stated that they would fund the artist’s travel to China where he would be met at the Beijing Airport on the appointed day in July, and safely returned there in September to enjoy a brief tour of the ancient city. In the intervening period the artist was to be accommodated near Shengli (Victory) Park where he would be provided with the materials, tools and assistance necessary to carry out his sculpture which was to be of not less than three metres in width or height and addressing the theme of Friendship, Peace and Spring.
 Situated in the province of Jilin (above Northern Korea), Changchun has a population of 7.135 million (with an inner urban population of 2.87) living within its 20,571 square kilometres. Changchun is well-known not only for its heavy industry (particularly auto manufacturing) but also for its thriving movie production industry.
It is also a city renowned for its stone dragons, unearthed from the relics of the New Stone Age tombs at Mt. Zuojia in Nong’an County, and the equally impressive stone men, goats and tigers unearthed from Jingyue Lake in Changchun, both sites dating from the Jin Dynasty. In addition, prior to the Cultural Revolution, other ancient religious sculptures adorned the temples and churches of Changchun. This area also contains sculptures from the period when Japan sought to establish a puppet regime in Manchuria.
Part of Changchun’s future development includes a commitment to establishing a world class international sculpture park. Towards this end it has, since 1997, run five sculpture symposiums, hosting a selection of established, national and international sculptors and along the continuing theme of Peace, Friendship and Spring.
In a brief introduction the committee explained that the purpose for hosting the symposia was to create sculptural works of the highest aesthetic value that would, by their presence, add to the urban culture of Changchun and extend its international influence. Accordingly, the five symposium gatherings have promoted and indeed produced wide cultural and artistic exchanges between the host city of Changchun and many international communities. During the first four symposia, there were over 1,700 proposals from more than 50 countries from which 179 sculptures from 50 countries and areas have been created. In the fifth and final session 1,662 proposals (including 1,214 proposals created by 276 artists from outside China) were submitted by 415 artists from 75 countries. Eventually 87 proposals were accepted to be created in Changchun including 58 foreign works from 52 countries and 28 works from 14 provinces and cities.
 “From beginning to end the whole excursion was a pleasure, culturally a very rich time. A daily rhythm soon evolved. This entailed morning tai chi exercise with many other local people in Shengli (Victory) Park – a place constantly alive with children and adults – followed by an hour-long walk around the adjacent lake, before breakfast, and then straight into the days work. This invariably started with some drawings and gestures, explaining my plans to my two assistants.”
Initially John had planned to execute his work in wood but the Committee, citing the climatic extremes of the region, asked if he would consider using stone. John agreed. When he eventually arrived on site, aided by his interpreter, Long Dan Feng, he went looking for the long, thin reddish sandstone slab he had requested. To his amazement he found two enormous rectangular blocks of red granite, inscribed with his name.
“As you can imagine, initially I was most surprised because I had not brought tools for granite, just a simple set of chisels for soft stone work given to me by an elderly friend many years before and with which I have worked ever since. However, I was assured by all concerned that I would have technical assistance and such was the sense of euphoria and excitement that anything seemed possible. The venture, for the two whole months, was infused with a genuine sense of possibilities and communication among all the different nationalities. The materials included fine marble, granite, quartzite, basalt. The facilities were marvellous, catering for steel fabrications and lost-wax facilities for bronze casting. Whole factories and founderies were totally absorbed with some of the sculptures. On site, ever ready to assist, there were three high-power cranes and mechanical equipment. Such facilities and tools in the hands of truly skilled artisans hastened the various processes along at a remarkable pace.”
“I had two very skilled artisans assigned to me. Despite the language difference, we formed a highly communicative and cohesive team. Basically I drew and gestured and, through my interpreter, communicated with my co-workers, particularly Shun Yuangsheng, a mason of considerable skills and to whom I gave my old but much prized leather working jerkin, once bought in New York but originally made in China. So, the jerkin was returned, full circle, home. This was only one of many small but meaningful exchanges and understandings. Another incident I recall with great pleasure was my co-workers’ response to the Maori blessing which I performed at the commencement of the work. My co-workers intuitively understood the spiritual significance and other sculptures approached, enquiring into the protocol and its meaning. During the symposium I was invited to help some sculptors with particular problems to create protocols to the furtherance of their work. Without exception, all concerned were most amiable. I was surprised and delighted to meet Winslow M. Craig, a young sculptor from Guyana who had spent some time at Christchurch Polytechnic. Overall Changchun was a collaborative and expansive experience in the very best sense of things. The needs of each individual were seamlessly attended to so that the larger design could be accomplished.”
“My own work was executed and carved horizontal, in the traditional Maori fashion, parallel to mother earth.. Then both of the red granite sections, together with an intervening band of grey granite, were hoisted into place by a crane.”
Initially, at least three sculpture proposals were requested. The only constraint proffered was that the work, in some form or other, encouraged the celebration of Peace, Friendship and Spring. John Bevan Ford responded with three proposals: one featuring Hine Awatea , and three of Maui . However, when John’s proposals were accepted, to his amazement, the Committee requested that he produce a work similar to an image that he had included in his CV; a snapshot of an old family-inspired woodcarving he had done many years earlier. In the negotiations that followed, and tempered by the stones that eventually materialised, John created a work that still retained the integrity of a genealogy-based work. This concerned Whatihua, his wife Ruaputahanga and their child Uenuku Kohatu, and another celebrated ancestress, Rongorito.
 These are the entities that eventually re-surfaced in red granite in Changchun. Entitled Caring Ancestors Last Forever, this four-sided work stands just under 5 metres, its perfectly aligned sections divided by a 100 cm granite plinth. On the face of the upper section the warrior Whatihua (c 1600), reaches down and grabs his child. Depicted in his prime, Whatihua’s limbs are graced with spirals signifying the energy present in his body. Tradition has it that his wife, Ruaputahanga had given birth to a son, a cause for immense celebration. But, upon returning from a great hunt, Whatihua passed the best portion to a younger wife so that Ruaputahanga felt aggrieved and left. Taking the new born infant she fled to the borders of Taranaki and Waikato. Enraged, Whatihua pursued her. As though in sympathy with the fleeing woman, a storm was brewing. With great care she covered the infant up to his chest in the soft sands of the river bank. Calling out to her husband she bid him stop, to come no further, to take the child and return to his province. He did. Whatihua returned with the child to his community and younger wife. Thereafter the boy’s name was changed from Unenuku Kohatu, to Uenuku whangai (whangai meaning adopted). “It was, among other things, an exercise in resolution; the conflict was resolved.”
In the section below which the figure of Whatihua is depicted as reaching down to grasp his son, is the lyrical, flute playing figure of Rongorito (c. 1680). Her head is demurely set on one side while her lithe legs are curved in the rhythms of dance. She epitomizes peace and plenitude since on her marae neither weaponry nor aggression were tolerated.
While both of these frontal narratives refer to historical actualities, re-membering and re-visioning two different responses to conflict, neither declares impasse. Rather, both celebrate possibilities and resolution. Whether or not the viewer is familiar with the Maori tradition, undoubtedly both narratives are legible and engage. The ‘foundation’ section shows a body informed by harmony. The upper section shows one figure reaching down to embrace another.
The caring ancestors in both sections are supported by tukutuku panels: roimata toroa (albatross tears) and patikitiki (flounders) – symbols not simply for remembrance, reciprocity and plenitude among the community, but also affirming that within memory the capacity for care and compassion resonates.
 The embrace of such possibilities has long been addressed in the work of John Bevan Ford, particularly in his cloak works. Not surprisingly then, the narrative aspects of this latest sculpture, a dance between solemn resolution and joyous community, is literally clothed by yet another cloak. Two in fact. Like the running patterns of flounder and albatross tears that bind the two ancestors, other significant patterns punctuate the borders and folds of the cloaks. “The cloak is a garment charged with much more than its physical properties. It is an affirmation of mana, dignity and power. Accordingly, I placed the small but powerful niho pattern, an invocation of the same qualities, in the border.”
The two remaining ‘guardian’ sides of the sculpture offer yet another embrace. They are related and important limbs, carrying representations and symbols especially significant to the East. In the upper righthand section is an image abstracted from a single pine tree in Shengli (Victory) Park. Such trees are common all over China, even in the most climatic extremes. But, most importantly, as John learnt, these trees symbolise longevity. “Even in their natural state,” he comments, “they offer a genuine sense of peace.”
In the lower right-hand section, peace and life are again celebrated by the crane and sun. Against the dark, the crane is depicted in light textures, as if lit by the moon. The reverse technique is applied to the tree above it. Its dark limbs suggest a sense of time, a balance not simply of dark and light, but of time beyond the calendar.
On the left-hand side of the work, two other sets of symbols immediately communicate. In the upper section is the ubiquitous eight-sided star; its proportions the same above as below. This was previously observed by John on a neolithic Chinese bowl and has long been part of his ancestor and migration vocabulary. Here, like a sparse representation of life and possibilities, the star floats omnipotently between two sets of horizontal bands - the four ‘corners’ of the earth perhaps, or its enclosing tides. It is accompanied by a single vertical ‘tide’ of wave tips, another pattern observed by John on an early neolithic bowl and frequently used by John in genealogical works on paper to invoke a distant Chinese homeland. Just as the octagram star is associated with continuity and magical possibilities, a ‘gateless’ design achieved by extending eight sides of the squares until they meet at the points,so also the wave tips symbolise the passage of life and migration. “They are,” the artist comments, “some of the simplest, most legible and resonant of marks. Significant symbols.”
In the lower left-hand section a large, single geometric spiral, Chinese in style, extends the idea of migration and rhythm. The geometric spiral (sometimes called the Greek key) is a symbol often used to conjure both waves and movement as well as the possibilities of continuity through repetition. Stylistically it both contrasts and yet is related to the double spirals of energy on the Maori ancestors depicted on the front. Ultimately both the Maori spirals and the single Chinese spiral invoke energies common to the cultures celebrated.
“An interesting oddity exists within the dynamics of the sculpture. Initially it may look like a fairly confrontational work, drawing upon the Maori tradition and form. But this is challenged by the narratives themselves in the upper and lower sections, calling for communication and commitment, but equally by the graphic side elements and, ultimately, embraced by the cloak and all that it represents. The narrative sides, both of which celebrate transcultural understanding and respect, flank and support the histories re-visited on the front. In turn, all of this is brought together, into discourse by the two cloaks on the back. The work then, with its four apparently very different faces, is in fact a continuous three-dimensional statement essentially calling for communication. Overall the body of this work demonstrates the importance John Bevan Ford attaches to surface and structure; the several textures employed create a surface that attracts viewers to explore the dynamics of the work. “The surface does not have to be ‘nice’ but it must introduce and engage viewers.”
The eventual choice of granite, an enduring material, becomes a most fitting vehicle for a timeless work as signalled by the title, Caring Ancestors Last Forever. Here material, structure and content form part of a whole. The overall proportions might be seen as monumental and totemic but really they offer a prospect more inclined towards harmony than anything else. Perhaps even like Euclid’s rectangle, the short and long sides of which were based on the division of a line into two parts, so that the shorter section is to the longer section as the longer section is to the whole. Because of its harmony of parts it was considered the most rational, secure, and regular of all geometric forms. Even today, all over the world we find its proportions in many common objects: houses, rooms, beds, tables, windows, doors, pictures, books, and many pieces of furniture.
“In our current climate,” John comments, ‘such images and proportions will, hopefully, endure and heuristically reinforce the importance of dialogue not only between members of a family or community, but between markedly different cultures and ways of life. Ultimately, this work re-reads the past, persuading us that it can positively inform the present while signposting a future that embraces possibilities of communication and celebrations of difference. This was, I believe the ethos encouraged by the whole venture at Changchun. There is, more than ever before, a great need for East and West to talk to and learn about one another. This I believe was a concept well-received by, among others, our own New Zealand embassy who went out of their way to ensure that they were present at the unveiling ceremony, an act I greatly appreciated.”
Born in Christchurch and educated initially at Leeston Primary School, John Bevan Ford is convinced that sculpture can meaningfully enrich the life and culture of any community, especially in light of the increasing exigencies of modern urban living. Paris, for example, is a fascinating illustration of how a beautiful, old world city remains determined to continually embrace the possibilities of sculpture and its potential to enrich the environment. L’Adefonts of Paris, in particular, is an excellent example of modern shared space and city planning. In the newest square near the Arch of Triumph and other nearby squares there are many different sculptures of various sizes, styles and materials: Miro’s colourful Lovers Playing Games, Calder’s red steel plate construction, Benevini’s Indefinite Lines and Cesar’s bronze Thumb. In the process of modernization the onus is upon us to make good use of the environment, rural and urban.
The controversies that continue to dog Cathedral Square, and Neil Dawson’s Chalice, are a case in point. Today, free of the dictates of commemorative-type public work, sculpture is free not only to beautify the environment, but also to be an influence upon urban construction. Undoubtedly, as John Bevan Ford has suggested, “In the creation of any shared space a guiding principle should be the fusion of past, present and future; a unity of form and environment.”
In this context Caring Ancestors Last Forever is exemplary. It is an example not only of this artist’s ability to synthesis and modify the core of his whakapapa (genealogy) to the point whereby these particular Maori histories can be related to and empathised with by others in their search for resolutions, but also a statement about how ‘roots’ can indeed endure - among other celebrations in the far north of China.
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