Untitled c.1985
native trees, earthmoving machinery, mixed media
Private Collection, New Zealand

Untitled was to be a work in the tradition of Pilka's pioneering "neutral landscape" series. It began with a forested east-facing half-acre section in the Coromandal purchased by the artist. Pilka's notes indicate the work would have been finished only when the plants and trees had been ripped out of the ground by bulldozers and the cleared earth carefully hand-pruned of all vegetation by the artist and several female assistants. Iwi and local communities vehemently opposed the work. Untitled was subsequently abandoned, although ownership of the land title remains in Pilka's name.