Fire will add drama to Petone Carnival
A sculpture maker is looking forward to seeing fire add drama to her creation at the Petone Winter Carnival.
‘‘The fire and wind will add movement to this composition and will highlight the dramatic effect of this event,’’ Lucia Rozenberg said of the moment when her sculpture and three others will be lit on the Petone foreshore on Saturday, August 6.
The Slovakia-born artist’s sculpture, called ‘‘1989’’, captures the moment the Berlin Wall fell, and the impact it had on Germany, as well as her homeland and others in the Eastern Bloc.
‘‘The 1980s was an important decade in our contemporary history. In my sculpture, I would like to capture the euphoric, dynamic and exciting moment of 1989 that I experienced as a teenager,’’ she said.
The Dunedin-based artist’s sculpture emulates images from November 1989 which showed people using tools to break the wall, climbing up the wall, falling down and celebrating the moment.
This year’s theme for the sculptures is ‘‘decade’’ because it has been 10 years since the carnival started, Hutt City Rotarian Harvey Reid said.
Bob Rowell and a team from Hutt City Musical Theatre have organised some live music from the 1920s and 30s to accompany their exhibit, ‘‘Art Deco, the Decade of Decadence’’, as it burns on the foreshore.
The Waterloo Scout Group’s sculpture, ‘‘Fire-Dial’’, was unusual because of its leaning tower and three fireball structures around the main leaning tower, Reid said.
Barry Bailey’s unique driftwood sculptures always attracted considerable attention and Reid expected Bailey’s ‘‘1929 Rod Rat’’, which celebrated the assembly of Model A Fords in Seaview in the 1920s, to do the same.
About 40 Hutt City Rotarians, plus helpers from the Naenae Boxing Gym and Hutt Valley High School students, will spend up to 14 hours on the day helping prepare the sculpture towers.
‘‘They just love seeing the kids and families have a great time.’’
The Rotarians will also be toasting marshmallows to give away to children between 4pm and 6pm. From 6.30pm till 7.30 pm the Hutt City Rotary team will set alight the four fire sculptures. The Hutt City Council, which runs the carnival, will close the night with fireworks from 7.30pm.