Tama - Nui - Te Ra

Designer & Artist Robyn Rawstorne engaged Global Stainless to build his complex, 8 meter tall, mirror polished orrery kinetic sculpture that features the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. A disc at the bottom can be turned by the public to make the Moon go around the Earth and the Earth go around the Sun.

It was commissioned by the Blenheim Business Association for its Marlborough Mile project, a walking circuit around the town, and celebrates the sun, because Blenheim rightly or wrongly calls itself the sunniest place in New Zealand, and “our place in the solar system”.
The sculpture is called Tama-nui-te-rā, which in te ao Māori is the personification of the Sun.

“For many years it had been a dream of mine to create an Orrery (a clockwork model of the solar system we inhabit)
The opportunity arose when Marlborough District council held a competition to celebrate Blenheim as New Zealand’s sunniest town.
I wanted the sculpture to engage visitors to the town center and to be Art that you can touch, it was to be 8m tall and through the turning of a wheel at the base enable visitors to turn the earth and the moon in turn orbits around the central sun.

I needed a partner that would be able to fabricate this in a beautiful curvilinear vision I had in mind whilst also addressing the complex reality of a planetary gearbox driving the two orbs representing the Earth and the Moon.

The team at Global I quickly perceived had both the world class expertise in forming stainless steel into complex forms whilst also having the necessary engineering skills needed to deliver this sculpture.
They took my concept and developed it further, whilst constantly value engineering to ensure the project remained possible.
The unique combination of creative alchemy and engineering knowledge created a magnificent outcome to then project that continues to engage and teach the mysteries of our place in the universe to those willing to reach out and touch the wheel and give it a spin.
This project was only made possible through the immense energy, drive and love that the team at GS placed into this project.
I hope that I will work alongside them again”.

Robin Rawstorne – Artist