Kingsley
Baird

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 sculpture's form – based on a Māori 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. The paving design alludes to the contrasting human behaviours of creation and destruction. These are expressed by references to gravel patterns in a Japanese rock garden and the blast waves created by an atomic explosion.

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

The cloak was manufactured by Metalform (Dannevirke) Ltd.

The Cloak of Peace - _The Cloak of Peace_. Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace. Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace - _The Cloak of Peace_ (detail: kowhai pattern). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace (detail: kowhai pattern). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace - _The Cloak of Peace_ (detail: poem). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace (detail: poem). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace - _The Cloak of Peace_ (detail: kowhai pattern projection). Photo: Catherine O’Connell

The Cloak of Peace (detail: kowhai pattern projection). Photo: Catherine O’Connell

The Cloak of Peace - _The Cloak of Peace_ (detail: paving pattern). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace (detail: paving pattern). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace - _The Cloak of Peace_ (detail: paving pattern and projection). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace (detail: paving pattern and projection). Photo: Kingsley Baird

The Cloak of Peace - _The Cloak of Peace_ (unveiling). Photo: unknown

The Cloak of Peace (unveiling). Photo: unknown