This design element is made up of 16 neon light wands, all of different lengths. They are coloured in green, blue, red and yellow, creating a pattern of light and movement on the outside of the New Lynn Community Centre. These individual lighting pieces were designed to signal and echo each other across the building's surface.

Artist Paul Hartigan was inspired by the history of light signals, coming from local radio towers and communication beacons in the Waitākere area. The artwork was commissioned by Waitākere City Council for the New Lynn Community Centre redevelopment in 2001.

"The juxtaposition and changing light sequence within the forecourt space creates a light-dance, a feeling of energy, transition and change, echoing the nature of community activity and interaction," says Hartigan.

Signal-Echo

Rising out of the brick paving behind The Potters Post, the old post office building built by local brickmakers Gardner Bros and Parker, this sculptural seat celebrates New Lynn's brick industry.  *Brick* was a playful addition to the Totara Avenue streetscape upgrade in 2011 which transformed the street into a pedestrian friendly shared space.

Artist Peter Lange says, "I was asked to produce a seat that commemorated the New Lynn brick industry, and I took a literal approach, literally, and used the word brick in mostly lower-case cursive writing to support the part you sit on. The 'k' forms a useful arm rest by chance, and it was an opportunity to show how fluid brick can be rather than endlessly rectilinear."

Nearby in the Todd Triangle at the other end of Totara Avenue is Lange's [*Tokens from the Game*](/artworks/3596), also made from brick, these children's board game pieces are rendered to giant proportions.

Brick

Celebrating a significant victory for New Zealand, *The New Lynn Suffrage Memorial Mural* by Sally Griffin marks the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage.  New Zealand was the first nation in the world to enact equal voting rights for women on 19 September 1893.

Knowing that the vote would finally be won through an Act of Parliament, massive petitions were presented and attempts were made in Parliament to pass enabling bills. Key parliament members such as Sir John Hall MP (depicted in the mural) were supporters of the cause.

The women in the first two panels of the mural are: Amey Daldy, Dolce Cabo, Lady Anna Stout, Harriet Morrison, Jessie MacKay and Learmonth Dalrymple. In the middle panel, Meri Te Tai Maungakāhia and Kate Sheppard are also represented.

This mural, originally commissioned for the Suffrage Centennial in 1993, has been painted in a modernist style to adapt the historical theme of Women's Suffrage for new generations.  This 2012 mural was commissioned by Auckland Council and replaces the 1993 mural that was damaged during the redevelopment of the New Lynn Community Centre in 1999-2000.

The Suffrage Memorial Mural of New Lynn

Along the railway side of the New Lynn Community Centre Neil Miller's *Palisade Signals* echo the semaphore signals used in rail travel.  The signals form a visual palisade running along the top of the building and highlights the idea of the Community Centre as a 'station', a place of meeting and movement.

The New Lynn Community Centre was the first large new facility in Waitakere City to have a fully integrated art and design thread woven into its development. Miller, as lead artist, worked with Architectus architects from the concept stage.

"An arts collaboration with a client such as the Council, that is working on behalf of the community, helps artists make their work fit better into the surroundings. You come up with something that is not an add-on after the event. It doesn't just descend on the site, it's more thoughtful." The artist said.

The project won the NZIA Resene Architecture Award in the Community and Cultural Category and Special Jury Award for Local Body initiative in Architecture in 2001.

Miller also conceived the complementary artwork [*Signals Passed at Danger*](/artworks/3954) in the 2010 development of the New Lynn Train Station.

Paul Hartigan

Signal-Echo

"Bands of coloured neon lights pulse across the exterior of the New Lynn Community Centre at night, inspired by the history of light signals."

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