‘Eggs-traordinary’ chicken coop
An artist from Golden Bay has drilled together an ‘‘eggstraordinarily’’ comical design to house a lucky brood of chooks.
Clifton metal worker and 3-dimensional artist, Kath Craw said her latest artwork is up for auction on Trade Me.
The ingenious piece is a 2.5m chicken coop shaped as a large portable black chicken on wheels with a bright red comb.
The artwork, titled ’’Little Chook’’ is made from painted recycled corrugated iron, bed frames, plywood and an old pram from the dump shop.
‘‘She makes an ‘eggs-cellent’ and spacious chook house that any chicken with a sense of style would be proud to roost in,’’ said Craw.
The chickens enter the coop by a ramp at the rear of the chicken. Inside is a straw-filled orange sofa; it also features matching curtains, chicken family portraits and natural-style perch.
The walls are finished in a tasteful ’’eggwhite white.’’
Currently employed as the arts worker for the Golden Bay Arts Council, Craw is also a professional clown called Cransky and much loved by all children of Golden Bay.
She said Little Chook is a humorous piece inspired by the clown in her ’’just to make people laugh.’’
‘‘It’s really my life’s ambition is to create laughter everywhere,’’ said Craw.
Little Chook had been on the backburner for about a year, and it took Craw one month to make.
‘‘I’d made one before about ten years ago in Tapawera, but it was larger and not as pretty.
‘‘I sold that and someone has got that one for their chickens somewhere in New Zealand,’’ says Craw. ‘‘
Craw said the coop was an assessment piece as part of her course work for the Advanced Diploma in Visual Art and Creativity she is completing through the Learning Connection, based in Wellington.
Craw said she had been attracted to manipulating metal since she was a child.
‘‘I just really love the smell of burning metal and the spark and the fire you create,’’ said Craw.
‘‘It feels quite powerful, to meld this really solid material.’’
Little Chook is open to view at Village Milk in Motupipi on Saturday August 30 between 2.30pm and 4.30pm, Sunday August 31 between 10am and 2pm.
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