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'Magic' Moment When Gravity-defying Rock Sculptures Click Into Place
Robin Martin, Reporter
Perversely, imperfections are the key to the intricate gravity-defying rock sculptures often found among the reefs and rock pools along the New Plymouth coastline.
They are the work of artist Nannos - otherwise known as Daniel Morgan - who can sometimes be spotted meticulously balancing rocks in this unique form of environmental art.
"What I normally look for when I'm balancing rocks is imperfections. I like weird shaped rocks with more indentations to balance things on.
"You're always looking for little marks or little things like that, because you want to find things that you can balance on those little points and imperfections."
He got into rock balancing a couple of decades ago.
"Years and years ago, the early 2000s a friend of mine, we used to drive out to the Stony River and we'd do the usual ones, where you'd balance from the big to the small."
But Nannos, whose work can be found on his Facebook page The World of Nannos Art, only got serious about the craft in 2013 after being introduced to the YouTube channel Gravity Glue.
"This guy Michael Grab was just doing rock balancing in a way I'd never seen before, like just balancing things on intricate points, or smaller rocks with bigger rocks balancing on them and it looked like it was impossible.
"It looked like I was never going to be able to do that. But I got up one day and I thought, he's just a human being, I'm a human being - he must've figured it out and I started practising."
Nannos says beyond the technical challenge there is also a meditative aspect to the craft.
"It's just calming. You know, as human beings, we get a lot of stress and stuff like that, but with rock balancing, you really have to focus, and it puts you in that meditative mind state.
"You're just at one with the rock and you're not thinking about things. All my stresses, all my worries, are just gone. I'm concentrating on balance, composition."
This meditative quality is evident in Nanos' work, which can feature delicate arches and precarious-looking structures that appear to defy the laws of physics.
"I always say there's kind of like an invisible line in the middle of the balance, and you're just moving the rocks relative to the weight to that line.
"So if you have a certain rock that's got a lot of weight on one side, then you've got to kind of manipulate that rock so the weight counterbalances with another rock."
He loves it when it all comes together.
"My favourite part would be that when you just feel that click, and you know you're just going to let your hands go and it's going to stay just like that, and it just stays there.
"And it doesn't matter how long I've been doing this for, every single time I that happens, it's a little bit of magic."
Nannos says the reaction he gets from the public is largely positive.
"There's been some funny moments where I've balanced stuff and then walked away from it. And people will come up and touch it. Have to touch it to see how it's stuck. But it's simple physics, really."
Some people worry about him moving rocks.
"I'm always extremely conscious of the environment. If, for example, if I'm working by the rock pools. I won't pick anything that's got anything stuck to it, because I don't want to damage the ecosystem."
"If I make a rock balance that's quite large, I generally push it over at the end and destroy it, which seems crazy after taking an hour and a half to build it, but everything is impermanent. I know even if I left it there and I'm gone, it's going to fall eventually. That's the beauty of this art."
More recently inspired by the work of UK artist Andy Goldsworthy, Nannos has branched out into the creation of mandalas in New Plymouth's parks.
"I only like to use what's on the ground and give it new a sense of new life. So if I see an area where there's a lot of yellow leaves on the ground, then that's me. There has to be a consistent amount of something to work with for me to be able to make a piece of art.
"Then all of a sudden my brain just goes into artist mode, and I'm like, I can make something out of that. I could make a spiral, I could make a circle. I could make a big wheel pattern or whatever."
Nannos says like the rock stacking, creating mandala has helped him come out of himself.
"Yeah, I've always been a little bit of an introvert in the past. So during the process of making mandala, I've met so many lovely people, had so many neat interactions, met other artists, and it's just brought me out of my shell, if you will.
"So it's been a really healing experience, and just the way it's grown, and the amount of people that have just just embraced what I do and given me compliments is just overwhelming."
RNZ
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