Delicate balance | Auckland Lifestyle News | Health, Fashion, Food and Wine in Auckland

An art show in Pakuranga has viewers walking through  precariously poised pieces, writes Sharu Delilkan.

Kamanee Naidoo discovered her love of building structures once she started taking classes at Manukau School of Visual Arts. Before that, she'd had other plans.

"I thought I wanted to be a painter but my whole focus has changed," says the Dannemora resident.

One of six MIT students showing their work in the Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts exhibition, Mura o te ahi (The heat of the fire), the 22-year-old has designed and made a 4m x 4m 3-D wooden framework people are invited to walk through.

"I chose wood because of its playful nature and because it's able to take on any form I want. My aim was to transform a utilitarian product into something that hasn't been seen anywhere else."

Naidoo says she started off  by balancing small components on top of each other to the point of collapse. "The idea is to force the structures to stay up and push the boundaries until, as an artist, I'm rendered useless."

Being the kind of person  who likes to control things in her life, Naidoo says she wanted to see how far she could go. "I am a perpetual organiser. Everything is colour-coordinated in my wardrobe. Part of my process is trying to overcome the limitations - in this case gravity - and trying to organise it so it works for me."

Feedback is vital to her work, particularly people's reactions to it. "People have to be very careful when they walk inside the space because everything is so precariously placed. But what I'm most interested in is what they build out of the fallen structures.

"It's like an unspoken conversation, making it an interactive piece."

Mura o te ahi , Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, 13 Reeves Rd, Pakuranga, until Aug 29. Free entry. Contact: ph 577 0138.