"Navigation Chart 3" 2020

Navigation Chart 3 (2020) is a one-of-a-kind wall work by New Zealand artist John Allen, inspired by one of the most remarkable navigational traditions in human history.

Long before European contact, the peoples of the Pacific navigated thousands of kilometres of open ocean between islands using stick charts — intricate frameworks of palm ribs and shells that mapped not land, but the invisible patterns of wind, wave, and current as they refracted around islands and responded to the deep rhythms of the sea. These charts, made in the Marshall Islands and across the Pacific until the 18th century, look deceptively simple. They were, in fact, highly sophisticated instruments of knowledge — read by touch as much as by sight, memorised before a voyage and left behind on shore. They represent one of the greatest feats of environmental intelligence ever developed by any culture.

Navigation Chart 3 honours that tradition in material and form. The backing is Japanese cedar grown in New Zealand — its wavy, flowing grain evoking the surface of the ocean itself. Against this, pōhutukawa roots reach across the composition like the stick framework of the original charts, grounded by a river stone below. Above, a piece of puriri floats like a vessel on the water — carried by the currents the chart was made to read.

Finished with natural oil and wax, every element of the piece is drawn from the natural world, assembled with care, and held in quiet conversation with one another.

Navigation Chart 3 is an original artwork of rare cultural depth and material beauty — a piece for someone who is drawn to the sea, to the Pacific, to the art of finding one’s way.

Specifications:

• Title: Navigation Chart 3 (2020)
• Artist: John Allen
• Materials: Japanese cedar (NZ-grown), pōhutukawa roots, river stone, puriri
• Finish: Oil and wax
• Height: 600 mm | Width: 300 mm | Depth: 120 mm
• Display: Wall-hung
• Care: Indoor display recommended