Take A Fresh Look At Nature

Take A Fresh Look At Nature

In A New Te Papa Exhibition

Wild Design: a fresh look at nature is a new exhibition that celebrates the intricate designs of the natural world, and looks at how these have been reflected in human art and design.

The exhibition is made up of objects from Te Papa's natural environment, history, Mäori, and art collections.

Wild Design begins by introducing the natural environment as you may have never seen it before. Magnified photographs show minuscule parts of nature enlarged so that their structures and patterns become objects of beauty. In this section, visitors will be able to compare themselves to a human-sized fly, see 108 different kinds of beetles, and get a close-up view of a sea-lion louse. And did you know that snails have teeth?

Large graphics fill section two, where comparisons are made between structures in nature and human design. For example, a magnified photograph of pollen is compared to the Sagrada Familia cathedral (Barcelona, Spain); DNA is compared to the bridge over the Firth of Forth (Scotland), and xylem is compared to a hïnaki (eel pot).

Beautiful decorative arts by Minton, Doulton, Bianchini Férier, and some of New Zealand's leading artists and craftspeople are showcased in section three, a place where visitors can see how aesthetic works show the influence of nature.

Wild Design: a fresh look at nature opens in The Boulevard West, Level 5 on 12 March and runs until October 2003. Admission is free.

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