About us: Concept

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"Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquiste - apart"

(Rudyard Kipling 1891)

An outpost is a distant branch or settlement and Kipling beautifully describes the feelings that the Hokianga Harbour evokes.

One of the inspirations to set up shop in such a remote location came from a scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1990 movie 'Sheltering Sky'. At the edge of the Sahara is a grand hotel - serving afternoon tea impeccably on the roof terrace overlooking the immense desert.

Outpost Hokianga came about as the idea that in the 'middle of nowhere' one could offer absolute exquisteness. An outpost for creative thinking connecting the 'far far away' with distant centres. What makes this even more interesting today is that the idea of a 'centre' and the far far away is virtually interchangeable via the internet.

This brought us to thinking that if information is the new luxury and culture the new currency - then the knowledgeable selection of one and the making of the other creates a new paradigm; perfect territory to explore at an Outpost!

Since opening Outpost Hokianga, we have found out about two other modern outpost concepts - one is the forever closed Prada Marfa in Texas - brainchild of two artists Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset. [www.kultureflash.net/archive/142/priview.html]

And the other is the studio & gallery of artist Richard Prince in upstate New York.

Both are fascinated and work with a context of 'the remote'.