‘An Installation’, which was completed in 1980, is the largest artwork in the University’s collection. Covering an area of roughly 30 x 40 meters, the work consists of a running fence in the shape of a cross, intersected by a circular steel sun or moon disc, and surrounded by an earth mound and boulder ‘eggs’. The circle and the cross shapes were deliberately incorporated as symbols of a natural life creative force, and the strong site lines were placed to give a human scale to the area, linking the environment to the college buildings.
As with many of Johnson’s works, this piece reflects the environmental concerns of the artist. In ‘Please Touch: A survey of the three dimensional arts in New Zealand’, Johnson said of her work that it “…often refers to the fertility of the land, its own regenerations, its eternal aspect, ‘it is there, always has been there’. Will it always be there?”
