Man injured in sculpture escapade
Foundation wants Len Lye work blocked off after climber breaks it
Aman was hospitalised after he scaled Wellington’s Water Whirler sculpture — and it snapped, sending him tumbling into the water and it after him.
The Len Lye sculpture had been undergoing maintenance after damage caused during the Kaiko¯ura earthquake when sea water got into it and fried the electrics. It was due back in action this month.
But about 3pm yesterday, a man climbed the thin structure, bending and breaking it.
The Len Lye Foundation said it had asked Wellington City Council to block it off completely after people kept damaging it, but was refused. The foundation hoped this incident would make the council reconsider.
Roger Horrocks, foundation trustee and author of Lye’s biography, said yesterday: “A sculpture like that has to be proofed against idiots — total idiots who want to destroy it.”
Council spokesman Richard MacLean said it would speak with the foundation and other interested parties about what could be done to stop further damage without the sculpture being made to look ugly.
“The problem with the design is you can basically walk right out to the Water Whirler from the wharf. We want to avoid ugly barbed-wire fences that would obviously ruin the aesthetic of the sculpture.”
The spike hit the man in the head and he was lucky to miss rocks beneath him. The scene of the incident was cordoned off.
Council waterfront specialist Fraser Ebbett said the man had been egged on by onlookers.
“It’s obviously got to a point where it couldn’t hold his weight and has snapped at the base. He has proceeded to fall in the water and at the same time the pole has made contact with his head quite heavily and caused a bit of blood.”
A Wellington Free Ambulance spokeswoman said the man, in his 20s, had moderate injuries.
Ebbett said salvage crews had been called in to retrieve the pole, made of metal and fibre glass, from the seabed.
“We are hoping to get the sculpture up and running again but it really depends on us retrieving the pole from the ocean and seeing its state.”
He said it wasn’t the first time someone had climbed the structure but “I’ve never seen anyone get as high as he has”.