Professor helps drive sculpture project funds
Sculptor and artist Chris Booth has teamed up with one of New Zealand’s leading authorities on climate change to help move a long-standing project off the drawing board and into reality.
Professor James Renwick of Victoria University’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences will deliver a series of lectures and presentations around the Bay of Islands in March as part of a drive to raise approximately $250,000 for the ten-metre tall sculpture that’s hoped to stand at the top of Bull’s Gorge, near Kerikeri, as an entranceway to the district.
Work started on the sculpture in September 2014 and was initially hoped to be finished by the end of that summer.
Professor Renwick says he’s been looking at ways to use artistic expression to communicate scientific issues.
‘‘Chris is doing the sort of work that achieves this and that interests me hugely, so I’m hoping this will be the start of a longer-term relationship.’’
The imposing Te Haa o te Ao - The Breath of the World - will feature 55 locally sourced boulders simulating poi, suspended from a central pou by stainless steel cables.
The post will be capped with a cast sculpture of three bird heads by Tuauahiroa Hei Hei.
The sculpture is designed to be a live barometer of how much effort the area is making to deal with climate change and environmental issues. Booth designed it at the invitation of Te Runanga o Ngati Rehia.
So far $40,000 has been pledged, with support coming from Transit New Zealand, the Far North District Council, local Rotary and Lions clubs, Probus, Vision Kerikeri, Aroha Island Charitable Trust, Living Waters, individuals and Oxford Trust.
Booth’s creations include the Rainbow Warrior monument at Matauri Bay and the water sculpture at Kerikeri Domain.
Professor Renwick will be speaking to invited audiences at Bay of Islands Academy, Kerikeri High School, the Kerikeri Retirement Village and Te Kongahu Museum of Waitangi from March 9-11.
Members of the public can hear his presentation at an open event hosted by Vision Kerikeri on March 9 at 7pm at the Cornerstone Union Church at the corner of Kerikeri Rd and Heritage Bypass.
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