Two Hawke’s Bay institutions have been celebrated for their use of colour, winning top awards at the 2020 Resene Total Colour Awards.
The Hawke’s Bay Opera House upgrade scooped the Heritage Commercial award and the Turuturu exhibition at MTG the Installation-Experiential-Product award.
The Awards were launched to “encourage and celebrate excellent and creative use of colour, and to showcase striking colour palettes and combinations and provide fresh inspiration.”
The Turuturu: Fingers, Feathers and Fibre exhibition at MTG was praised for its carefully woven colours “making it almost difficult to see where one colour ends and the next one begins”. The judges also said “the hues are sympathetic to the curated collection, but they relate equally well to each other. Inspired by nature’s unerring mastery of colour, this palette layers the best of nature’s inspiration with a flaxen twist. A natural winner.”
MTG’s exhibition and facilities co-ordinator James Price said that in the exhibition, colour and design were used to provide deeper meaning and context to the Taonga on display, taking inspiration from the harakeke (flax) plant, the woven structure of a kete, and the concept of weavers as knowledge holders.
“Colour was critical to achieve the design concept and winning the Resene award is a great result for the team.”
The Hawke’s Bay Opera House upgrade by Dave Pearson of DPA Architects was described by the judges as “a project steeped in colour, so richly and dramatically dressed. A definite crowd pleaser, the hues warm up the audience and create a sense of anticipation for the performance that lies ahead. Well deserving of a standing ovation.”
For readers who are looking for inspiration, the Resene colours used in the Opera House are Vanquish, Merlot, Eighth, Half and Triple Pearl Lusta, Half and Full Gum Leaf, Quarter and Full Canterbury Clay, and Resene Carnaby Tan.
The Turuturu exhibition used Resene colours Flax, Cross Country, Mustang, Black Magic, Serenity, Opal, Petite Orchid, Kalgoorie Sands, Caper, Nirvana, Chelsea Cucumber, Origin, Contessa, Rose Of Sharon, Flourish, Bay Leaf, Aqua and Area 51.