Environmental Sculpture and Meaning-making in the Auckland Botanic Gardens

Abstract

Environmental sculpture has become an important component of contemporary public
landscapes, where art, ecology, and cultural meaning increasingly intersect. However, limited
research has examined how visitors construct meaning through environmental sculpture in
botanical gardens or how institutional curation shapes those experiences. Using a qualitative
phenomenological case study, this research investigates selected environmental sculptures in
the Auckland Botanic Gardens, Aotearoa New Zealand, through repeated field observations
and reflexive thematic analysis. Guided by phenomenology, with Dewey's Art as Experience
and Coomaraswamy's philosophy informing interpretation, the study examines how sculpture,
landscape, and visitor experience generate meaning. Three interconnected themes emerged:
Indigenous and bicultural storytelling, ecological metaphor and environmental advocacy, and
functional and playful participation. The findings demonstrate that meaning develops through
embodied movement, sensory engagement, and the reciprocal relationships among sculpture,
landscape, and institutional curation rather than through visual representation alone. By
showing how curatorial placement and interpretation shape public understanding of cultural
and ecological narratives, the study advances a phenomenological framework for interpreting
environmental sculpture as a lived, culturally situated, and institutionally mediated landscape
experience.