Pauanui is the Maori word for 'big abalone', a giant clam slowly opening in anticipation of something to be revealed. It explores the tension generated by environmental forces interacting with and reflected by the change in shape of this sedentary animal. It pursues that moment between balance and flight where the precise distribution of mass, form and space activate the sculpture – a creative engineering that aims to imbue a potency of energy, of aerial lightness, or alternatively of crushing weight. Inspired by observation of pattern and form in the natural world and spatially activated by the distribution of its mass, Pauanui embodies movement and anticipation – a sense of unfolding . . . . of unwrapping.