Wellington creative Preston McNeil (Te Arawa, Tainui) has wife Faye to thank for the inspiration behind his latest creation - a bright red, carved pouaka reta (letterbox) - that’s a sensation online.
“She’s like, ‘make us a letterbox, we need a cool letterbox.’
“That was the design brief from my wife,” says McNeil.
Almost 100,000 TikTok views later, McNeil can’t believe the reception his “flash” letterbox has received.
“It’s just kind of gone crazy. I haven’t had anything get as much views as this.”
A professional animator, McNeil has made more than 30 music videos, but only started making physical objects four years ago, and exhibiting them as artworks in the last couple of years.
His spacies machines, featuring collabs with street artists like Flox, Otis Frizzell, Gina Kiel and Otis Chamberlain, have been an exhibition hit, and laid the pathway for the pouaka reta.
“I’m making them as art pieces, not arcade games. I’m trying to make these arcades as a conversation piece, an art piece that you hang on your wall. It sits there and it’s something that stirs something in you emotionally, you know, personally. So for me, that’s what the purpose of these things are. And they’re playable.”
It’s been a steep climb but a worthwhile one to get where he is today, he says.
“Over this last four years, I’ve been experimenting with processes and building relationships with amazing fabricators. So it’s been a whole other journey. It’s been a massive learning curve.
“The pouaka reta that’s basically me applying all of this mahi, all of this knowledge that I’ve learned making the arcade cabinets - and then being told what to do by my wife.”
His prototype letterbox is about 1.6m tall, and he’s currently working on a shorter version for sale.
“I had to pivot quickly and design a short one. I’m currently in a production run of those at the moment.
“I’m enjoying the idea of creating a product and something that people can appreciate. Something that’s actually physical, other than the ethereal nature of the content I usually make.”
Māori and indigenous arcade games
McNeil will have his seventh exhibition shortly, and on the horizon has hopes for a show in Melbourne.
As well, he’s got two exciting projects in the pipeline - a reo Māori arcade game series, and an international collab to create a suite of indigenous arcade games.
“The way I’m doing it is by putting as much of my energy into te ao Māori or toi Māori projects.
“We’ve just made our first game and it’s completely in te reo (Māori). Tiki Taane has done the music and the sound effects for it.
“The idea is to create a suite of three games, one for each of the cabinets. They’re all going to be based on pūrākau specific to Te Arawa.”
The plan is then to partner with indigenous overseas, “turning the arcade experience into an indigenous experience.”
“I’m looking to collab with artists from Australia, from the Americas. So Mayan and North American artists, and other indigenous artists from around the world to create a suite of games.
“Indigenous games based off classic arcade games. Then collab with the artists to do cabinets.
“So all the art and all the games are going to be indigenous.”
