Whanganui-based artist Sue Cooke has opened her fourth large-scale work, Long Hee Lee - A Songless Land, at the Eastern Southland Gallery. 

The artist took three years to develop drawings and small scale models for the exhibition, which began on Tuesday (December 1). 

The concept evolved during a year of travel and research into deforestation in New Zealand, funded by the Pollack Krasner Foundation, New York. 

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The work was inspired by the Long Hilly Walking Track at Round Hill, Southland.

Made up of 20 loose canvas banners, the full-sized artwork measures 3.5m high and 16m wide. 

Cooke said she has chosen to work on this scale so gallery visitors feel enclosed, overpowered and dwarfed by the forest experience. 

Her work was mostly a solo effort with some hands on support from student Olive Pegler and Cooke’s husband Bryce Smith.

The art work is about destruction and regeneration and depicts the primary regrowth of Kamahi forest on the site of mature podocarp forest felled by Chinese miners from 1870 to 1890 in their quest to mine flakes of gold from the forest floor. 

“Shockingly, pre Maori settlement of Aotearoa New Zealand, the islands were covered with 85% indigenous forests and now we have a mere 15% coverage and sadly despite many organisations and individuals working to preserve and reverse the trend New Zealand’s forests are still being lost, albeit at a slower pace,” Cooke said.

Sue Cooke during the print-making process. PHOTO: Matt Smith/Supplied

Marcella Geddes, Gallery Programmes Officer says, “Long Hee Lee wraps around you like a forest and is an immersive and absorbing experience. Its environmental message is particularly pertinent at this current time.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue containing essays by writers Helene Wong and Don Abbott.

Wong writes about the history and lifestyle of the mainly Cantonese Chinese miners while Abbott explores the ideas within the artworks and the making of the exhibition. 

Helene Wong is the author of "Being Chinese: A New Zealander’s Story" published by Bridget Williams Books in 2016 and Don Abbott is deputy editor at Art New Zealand. 

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The exhibition runs until March 1, 2021. It has relevance and appeal for all age groups and includes an education programme for Gore’s school children this week.

The programme has been supported by Creative Communities Gore, the Pollack Krasner Foundation, New York, USA, and the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust.

Cooke gives an Artist Talk at the Eastern Southland Gallery on Saturday December 5, at 5.30pm.

Admission is free and all are welcome.