By Niko Leyden
Niko is one half of Keminiko & Co, the artists of Hut Club Whakatipu
We love huts. Chances are you love them too. Who can resist the charms of the humble hut waiting for them at the end of a long tramp through the bush? Finding the hut and stepping through its door is an experience perfectly paired with the act of tramping itself. Hours spent in the bush calms the mind to such a state that anything more than a simple shelter with the bare basics would ruin the moment.
The less we can put between us and the wild outdoors the better. It’s called ‘out-of-doors’ for a reason. We live in relation to our shelters and time spent away from our own cluttered nooks of comfort can do wonders for our appreciation of four walls and a roof.
Staying even one night in a tramping hut is like pressing the reset button on your mind. Have you tried turning it off and on again? It works wonders.
The charm of the hut lies in what it is not. There is no entertainment here. There is no ease in feeding yourself. Your sustenance relies on how well our past-self packed and your ability to cook in one pot. If you want to rest… go to bed. If you want to clean or water yourself… do it outside. If you want to use your eyes after the sun has set… use a torch or better yet just go to bed, the sun will rise again soon enough.
We cannot help but be influenced by what we see. And what we see is the stuff around us. When we’re at home my eyes are constantly resting on things… stuff… objects… clutter. I don’t know about you, but my mind gets fatigued just being awake with all that input, not to mention all of the extra content I feed it.
Gazing at nature feels good because nature is made up of fractals; chaotic patterns that repeat on various scales. Nature has a level of complexity that the eyes can rest on without trying to do much else. In other words simplicity is found in complex patterns.
This is something we’ve also found in our design process. When we set out to build an artwork based on a hut (or ‘hutwork’ if you will) there is a certain level of complexity to work with. You have the site where the hut will sit; the ecology, the track and its encompassing view. The site comes with a community of people who kaitiaki. A people who come with masses of complexity and connections, all incredibly enriching to soak up for inspiration. Materials are found, seeped in history and nuance. Materials that need care and attention to become useful once more.
So our process begins with a good collection of complexity and our job is to sift through all of that to find the simplicity we crave. In order to create a hutwork, a sculpture inspired by one of humanities simplest forms, we must find a single nugget of joy and strip almost everything else away. Sound simple? You’re right, it’s not. It’s complicated and it takes time but all going well, at the end of it, we have created a beautiful structure that adds to the experience of reaching it. A structure that sits at peace in its environment, that is treasured by its community and that doesn’t give the mind too much to do.
Want to know more about Keminiko & Co?
Follow them on Instagram – @kemi_niko
More about the Hut Club Whakatipu here…
