Te Rapu Tūrangawaewae

The Search for a Place to Stand

An ongoing series by Sean Philpott

For several years, I have found myself returning to a deceptively simple question:

Where do I belong?

I often wonder where the trees I work with once stood. Each once occupied its own place within an ancient forest, a place now lost to time.

While I have struggled to find certainty in my own sense of belonging, I’ve found comfort in the order and logic of mathematics, where everything has its place.

My fascination with mathematical relationships and my respect for the stories held within these trees have become the foundations of my artistic practice.

Each artwork begins with an exploration of the number from which it takes its name.

Through proportion, material selection and component counts, I create layers of interconnected numerical relationships, linking individual elements to the composition as a whole.

Each artwork brings together hundreds, sometimes thousands, of precisely hand machined and arranged pieces. Their dimensions and proportions are informed by the number from which the artwork takes its name, while their position and orientation establish their relationships with the surrounding pieces.

Each individual piece is given a place within something larger than itself.

The river recovered native timbers I work with span extraordinary periods of time. Some have lain preserved beneath riverbeds for thousands of years. Others originate from ancient forests felled by early European settlers, their logs preserved for generations on those same riverbeds, sometimes still bearing the original logging stamps of the men who cut them.

These materials carry vastly different histories, yet find their place alongside one another within the same composition.

I can establish the numerical relationships between a thousand pieces of timber. I can determine where each belongs within a larger composition. I can create harmony through proportion and order.

Yet I continue to question where I belong myself.

The first work in this series emerged during a period when I was questioning my identity as an artist. As the series developed, I began to recognise a deeper connection between the methodology of my work and my own search for belonging.

These artworks do not attempt to answer the question of belonging. Instead, they give physical expression to the search itself.