In a primordial forest, a futurist-classical form challenges the perfect proportions of Renaissance Man. Evolved from the median dimensions of female figures worldwide, the X-figure establishes new ratios in an ancient stone unearthed in the mountains of Aotearoa New Zealand. Its twin planes mirror the clash of tectonic plates – geological shifts from millennia past that fractured landforms and uplifted the submerged eighth continent, Zealandia, Te Riu-a-Māui, from the ocean floor. Set in the emerald-green terrain first captured by NZ environmental artist Craig Potton, the hourglass form belongs to deep time.

At once at home and autonomously apart, the monument rises in a biosystem rich with myth. Hewn from the land itself, its posture evokes primal creation stories – a totem between heavens and earth, feet grounded in Papatūānuku (Earth Mother), arms reaching through mist toward Ranginui (Sky Father). Overhead, tree branches arc like outstretched hands, forming a canopy reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. Emergent from the heart of a submerged continent, Zealandia (At Home) anchors ancestral DNA to the land and bears witness to ecologies in flux.