The Cloak of Peace
Te Korowai Rangimarie
Heiwa No Manto


Nagasaki Peace Park
Nagasaki
Japan
2006

The cloak – a gift of friendship from the people of New Zealand to the people of Nagasaki – symbolises consolation, protection, and solidarity. It also expresses ambivalence, reflecting conflicting interpretations of historical events. The cloak’s form – based on a Maori feather cloak – is covered with a perforated pattern of native New Zealand kowhai flowers.

Interactivity is central to visitors’ experience of the cloak. Its dynamic shape and the ground plane pattern ‘invite’ engagement: standing within the sculpture’s ‘embrace’ during sunlight hours, visitors’ bodies are cloaked in the projected flower pattern. By establishing a ‘photo opportunity’ in front of the sculpture, the cloak is also intended as a reflection of how the public encounter and respond to memorials.

‘Remember winter. Spring’s welcome consolation.’
A ‘collar’, extending around the cloak’s upper edge, contains a commissioned poem by Jenny Bornholdt in English, and interpretations in Japanese and Maori by Maekawa Tomoko and Hawira and Hiria Hape, respectively. Text typography is by Annette O’Sullivan and Yumiko Tahata.