At first glance Stephen Mulqueen's Rua Kuriwao or red bush dog looks like a sculpture of man’s best friend.
As well as acting as a guardian - welcoming visitors to the exhibition along Waikhehe Island's beautiful coast - it represents a whole lot more.
“This particular work references the timber that was extracted out of the Hauraki region, particularly kauri,” explains Mulqueen. “The timber was pulled out on wooden rails and those wheels were used to transport the timber.”
The dog shape is also a reference to spike nails commonly known as dogs to railway workers.
Like Mulqueen's sculpture, many pieces in the exhibition represent more than meets the eye.
Paul Radford prefers to not give his own meaning to his work.
“I think things don't have any meaning and that's the enigma of it,” says Radford. “That's why the Sphynx is so wonderful. There's no applied meaning to it. It's up to other people to apply meaning to work.”
While Radford leaves it to the eye of the beholder to make meaning of his piece, Flotsam, former geologist Richard Wedekind hopes the context of his work - learning to breathe under water - comes to the surface.
“It’s a piece that relates to climate change and the three heads represent humanity sinking under a rising tide of sea-level change,” explains Wedekind.
Other works in the headland sculpture on the gulf exhibition represent subjects such as war, human nature, cross roads and the fear of the unknown.
Out of 110 submissions, 26 of some of the country's best sculptors were chosen for the exhibition.
Whether or not people understand what the sculptures represent, the artists must be doing something right. More than 20,000 visitors made it to the last exhibition and even more are expected this year.
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