This suite relates to Pathway to the Sea – Aramoana (1991), a major sculptural installation of parallel rows of fluorescent tubes and paua shells that stretch across the floor. Based around Otago Harbour, the prints show a range of ideas and themes that Ralph Hotere and William Culbert had for the installation.
The wine glass, which occurs throughout this suite, symbolises the harbour and its stem symbolises the ‘pathway to the sea’. There is also text, which, of course, is absent from the installation piece. Hotere and Culbert raise the question of identity by asking ‘No Hea Koe?’ (Where are you from?) and ‘Ko Wai Koe?’ (Who are you?)
Hotere and Culbert have collaborated on a number of large scale sculptural works since the early 1990s.
Hotere was born in Mitimiti, Northland, and is one of New Zealand’s most significant contemporary artists. He studied at the Central School of Art in London and has worked in France and Italy but lives at Port Chalmers. Hotere has exhibited paintings and sculpture throughout New Zealand and has made numerous works as a result of public commissions.
Culbert was born in Port Chalmers, near Dunedin. He studied at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Art and in 1957 travelled to London and attended the Royal College of Art. Culbert has been making sculptures using light since the late 1960s and exhibits widely in Britain and Europe. He currently lives in London and the south of France and often returns to New Zealand.

Purchased, 1991
Reproduced courtesy of Bill Culbert and Ralph Hotere
Lithograph
91/25:11-13
1991