Private Collection, Wellington Private Collection, Auckland Collectable Art International Art Centre, August 2019 Acquired from the above sale by the current Estate

According to Gregory O’Brien in his book Don Binney, Flight Path; The 1990s began not only with his fiftieth birthday but also with a revelatory encounter with Hawai’i. O’Brien continues; During the university recess in August he self-funded an unofficial, three-week sabbatical there, and found himself unexpectedly swept away by the light, atmosphere and ambience, and by the islands’ historical and cultural richness.
Binney wrote of the experience stating; It was like going through the looking-glass ... Hawai’i was a recovery - like learning to swim or walk or talk again.
Painted after Binney’s early 1990’s sabbatical in Hawaii, A Cape for Father Damien II features the volcanic landform of Molokai with a depiction of Father Damien on the beach wearing his wide brimmed hat.
In the sky above is a stylised image of a traditional feather cloak worn by Hawaiian chiefs. Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai (1840 -1889) was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium who ministered for sixteen years to lepers quarantined on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. In 2009 Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.
My idea was to offer a cape to Father Damien - to the moral and spiritaul priest, an ahu’ula fabricated from the feathers of the apapani, with colour values of gold and red. - Don Binney

EXHIBITED Binney: Forty Years On, The Dowse, Lower Hutt 2003 - 2004
ILLUSTRATED Don Binney: Nga Manu/Nga Motu - Birds/Islands, Damian Skinner, Auckland University Press, 2003, p. 60 Don Binney Flight Path, Gregory O’Brien, Auckland University Press, 2023, p.308
REFERENCE Included with this lot is a DVD recording directed by Roger Taberner, Auckland Art Gallery, 2004