About this Collection

Reuben Paterson’s debut blockchain-based digital artwork, Te Maiea, is a deeply personal creation.

This four minute long looped animated artwork observes the whakapapa of Hine Maheri (the personification of sparkling fine grained sandstone), through the union and incarnations of our cliffs, rocks, stones and springs produced from Tāne Mahuta, the god of the forest, and his particular union with Hine-tū-pari-maunga, (the personification of mountains and cliffs).

Reuben Paterson's practice is inspired by enriching our connection to coruscation - a sudden visual flash of brilliance, or sparkle. Primarily utilising glitter as a man made material to achieve his creative visions, those flashes of light are sourced back to nature in the artist's mind, and in this magnificent digital artwork "Te Maiea", to the sandstone and iron rich sands of Aotearoa where as a young boy, Paterson was raised on the sparkling black basalt sand on Piha Beach.

Despite the digital nature of this artwork, the foundation of its creation relates to Reuben's physical works. The glittering kaleidoscopic shapes are formed from multiple layers of cut out and re-composited drawings, which are then scanned and animated with a conscious direction to display the narrative.

If the artwork feels familiar, keen followers of Paterson's work may have already viewed 'Te Maiea' in 2020 when it was projected onto Auckland's Aotea Centre as part of the Centre's 'Wrap' series. In 2023, these glittering animated patterns have been masterfully re-centred for optimal display on the Samsung Frame and other personal screens.

'Te Maiea' is available exclusively on the Glorious Marketplace as a limited edition of 30.

The displayed video is a 15 second preview of ‘Te Maiea’. Total run time of the video NFT is four minutes which has been optimised to be displayed on the Samsung Frame and other personal screens