Mural Masterpieces - Hare Krishna School

Location:
1229 Coatesville Riverhead Highway, Riverhead.

Team:
Zeal, Sangita, Gandharvika, Adithyasai, Sanjay, Lakshya, Kardama, Narada, Joy, Rudri, Isha, Aditi, Varun, Ruhan, Jasteen, Arjuna, Rayana, Artharva, Krishant, Mohanishwar, Kunj and Sai, aged 10-12 years.

Accessible to public:
Yes.

Mural theme:
Kotahitanga a Whariki, weaving together of two cultures.

Background to mural creation:
The students wanted to beautify the view from the classroom. They wanted to take ownership of the areas by putting something that reflects their specific identity as Hare Krishna students in New Zealand.

Many students from the school have migrated from foreign countries. They were studying what it meant to be a Kiwi. They wanted to emphasise that one can be a Kiwi while maintaining their identity as a Hare Krishna. This discovery has been expressed in the murals that the student created.

Prior to creating the mural, the students studied elements of art using artist modes like Gordon Walters, John Bevan Ford, Rei Hammon and Stanley Palmer. They experimented with line, shape, colour, pattern and tone using methods like stippling, scumbling, pointillism, hatching, etc. The class was broken into groups of four and each group came up with ideas that integrated the two cultures, Vedic and Maori.

The upside down tree: In this mural they have shown the spiritual and the material world expressed by the metaphor of a tree (taken from a Vedic verse in the Bhagavad Gita). The material world is a reflection of the spiritual world but is a temporary creation. It is a dry illusion. The spiritual world has been depicted here through colour, native birds, etc.

Lore Jagannath’s sun is rising: Just like the sun of Maui, Lord Jagannath shines on New Zealand, welcoming us all from different parts of the world as we arrive in our wakes, without judgement of colour or creed.

Aghasura: Here the vicious snake Aghasura, who ultimately got destroyed by Lord Krishna has been depicted like a Taniwha.

Hanuman carries the mountain: In the Ramayan, Hanuman, could not identity the precious medicinal plant (Sanjeevini) and therefore decided to carry the whole mountain over the ocean to his friend Laxman who was dying. The students used John Bevan Ford as their inspiration for showing the abstracted New Zealand plant life on the mountain.