Tanya Ashken

In 1967 Ashken was the second artist to be awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, an opportunity for her to spend a year in Dunedin developing ideas for large sculptures. After this Ashken attracted a number of major commissions, including Seabird V (1974) for the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra and her best-known work, the water sculpture Albatross (1986) in Frank Kitts Park, Wellington. This was a first commission for the Wellington Sculpture Trust. Hone Tuwhare wrote a poem to mark the occasion. Ashken said she got the idea for the Albatross sculpture while walking along a beach in Island Bay in 1979 and seeing waves crashing around rocks. She initially submitted Albatross to the Aotea Square Water Sculpture competition and was shortlisted as one of six finalists. In December 1979 the commission was awarded to Terry Stringer's Mountain Fountain. Art historian Anne Kirker describes Ashken's sculpture as “graceful organic forms articulated by the play of natural light”, and notes the evocation of “weathered stone or the graceful movements of seabirds – familiar components of her Island Bay home in Wellington“. In the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours, Ashken was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to sculpture, silversmithing and jewellery.