MTG wins major award for George Nuku exhibition

Published: 8 October 2019

Last Updated: 22 October 2019

Winning a gold award for spatial design for a uniquely artist-community collaborative exhibition is an “amazing result”, say staff involved with George Nuku: Bottled Ocean 2118.

The exhibition won the spatial design award in the exhibitions and temporary structures category in the 2019 Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Awards, held last Friday.

It was created in three weeks last year by the Hastings-raised, Paris-based artist George Nuku, including Perēri King, Patricia Nuku, Jack Nuku, George’s friends and whanau, 1700 school students, and members of the public, who brought in thousands of used plastic bottles.

The exhibition clearly resonated with visitors to MTG, and was extremely popular with the public.

George, curator Jess Mio and MTG’s Design Team worked together to create an immersive underwater world using spatial design to communicate the artist’s unique perspective of plastic as a taonga, a beautiful and precious substance like pounamu or diamond, with unique properties and an incredible whakapapa.
MTG's James Price: "We were up against some high profile, big budget exhibitions. George Nuku: Bottled Ocean 2118 winning a gold award for spatial design is an amazing result."

All design elements were considered in relation to foundational values of care, respect and balance between people and our environment, says James Price, Exhibitions and Facilities Coordinator.

“We were up against some high profile, big budget exhibitions. George Nuku: Bottled Ocean 2118 winning a gold award for spatial design is an amazing result,” he says.

While the Bottled Ocean exhibition is now closed, a video of the artist himself, speaking about the exhibition and his vision of a future where plastic and the oceans converge, can still be viewed at MTG.

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