Wairarapa-based sculptor and teacher Roger Thompson may work from an old shed in Greytown but his art sits on the world stage.

In minus five degrees celsius, with a chainsaw and chisels at hand, Roger Thompson gets to work on his icy canvas.

It is November 2007 and the Greytown-based head of Kuranui College’s art department is bringing to life his design for a suite at Sweden’s famous Ice Hotel. He is one of 31 artists from 13 countries selected for the task of carving a room out of ice. Every November for the last 18 years in remote Jukkasjärvi the hotel is built from scratch. When the spring thaw comes it melts away again having attracted thousands through its doors. With the chilly silence splintered only by the sounds of his cutting, carving and chipping, Thompson’s images slowly emerge - koru spirals, weaving patterns, Celtic symbols, the outline of a native plant, a skull, a clock stuck at the eleventh hour, frozen in time. It took 15 days to transform the igloo-like structure into an icy work of art, labelled “Taonga”.

“It was like playing. But then art for me is like playing,” he says. When a woman appeared at the door asking if his room was the South American suite, Thompson was delighted. “I took these patterns we have here over to Sweden and (to the viewers there) there’s familiarity but also unfamiliarity. It illustrated so beautifully the resonance of pattern throughout the world. We may think we own something but in fact it’s all over the place.”

At home in Greytown, Thompson flicks through photos of his artworks. They are far-flung around the globe – a giant bronze cube in China’s Changchun World Sculpture Park, a towering steel sculpture in a forest in Kichevo, Macedonia and three elegant amphorae of delicately cut metal exhibited in Athens during the last Olympics. His work expresses multi-cultural New Zealand and he relishes putting it on the global stage.

“It’s a kind of currency in the world of art,” he says of his use of New Zealand cultural symbols in his artworks. “They’re about New Zealand, just the mixture of what we are and what this country is – Maori, Celtic, Pacific Island.”

The two metre high cube in Changchun (Masterton’s sister city) is peppered with symbols of colonialism as well as Maori culture – old sailing ships, a church, a burnt forest, Maori weaving patterns and carving. Etched alongside are his personal stories. “I wrote there all the things that annoy me. Go up close and you can read it. There are also references to British colonisation and the destruction of culture and language.”

Originally from Queenstown and a fourth generation New Zealander, Thompson has been in the Wairarapa since 1993. He says it’s a good base as it affords him a teaching job which enables him to create as well.  While the Wairarapa is not central to his work, the development of geographic connections is a strong theme in his art. The sculpture in Macedonia is “very Pasifika”, like a kava bowl, or a boat, he says. “Actually it would be good for sacrificing people!” he laughs. It bears the place name “Wairarapa” and the region’s geographic co-ordinates. Thompson fancies these words may pique the interest of some future Macedonian who may be tempted to visit the region one day.

Thompson has ideas to install similar artworks which speak of place around New Zealand including Wairarapa. He has designed huge steel structures which now sit beside roads in Dunedin and Tokoroa. The “frames” contain town symbols like Gothic windows in the Dunedin installation and motifs representing Tokoroa’s large Pacific community. Thompson is keen to create something similar for Masterton if funds can be raised.

“It would hugely enhance our visual world. We have some good architecture and some really lousy architecture. We have to suffer road signs which are some of the biggest visual pollutants.” While creating sculpture and art may be “like playing” for now, Thompson is keen to become more serious, to take on more commissions for private and public spaces.

Back in his own private space, like his room at the Ice Hotel, there is taonga a-plenty. Tibetan prayer flags flutter under the verandah. His work shed glints with intricately cut metal shapes. A slender amphora has become home to climbing greenery in the garden.

Inside is Thompson’s latest creation, a gold leaf lyre with paua shell strings. It’s awaiting transport to the Beijing Biennale, an international art exhibition taking place during the Olympics. Just another of Thompson’s taonga which he shares with the world.