Boredom leads to sculpture stunt

The Wellington man who climbed a Len Lye sculpture only for it to come crashing down under his weight says boredom and an encouraging crowd were behind the stunt.

But historian Roger Horrocks, who was Lye’s personal assistant in the final year of his life, said the artist would have been ‘‘deeply hurt by the sheer idiocy’’ of the person who saw it as just a climbing frame – and not a work of art.

Hunter Macdonald said he was ‘‘bored out of my mind’’ while walking along Wellington’s waterfront, when he came across the Water Whirler sculpture – which cost about $300,000 at the time of installation in 2006.

In a video interview supplied to Stuff, he said: ‘‘I decided to stop and sort of attempt some sort of gymnastic, acrobatic stuff on the sculpture.’’

Macdonald said he had no idea that Lye, ‘‘who is clearly a big deal’’, had actually done the work.

‘‘Obviously, that is his work, his art, so obviously I apologise for defacing that, that wasn’t my intention. To the people of Wellington, it’s such a beautiful city and everyone sort of takes pride in the city, so I do apologise to them.’’

Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said it was too early to estimate how much the fix would cost but it looked likely to be covered by insurance.

‘‘We’ll have to get structural engineers and other experts to have a close look at the damage to see whether the broken pole can be repaired or if it has to be replaced.’’

It was too early to say if the sculpture’s motors had been damaged.

Police had been in touch and were to take a statement from Macdonald yesterday.

Macdonald said after falling from the sculpture, he struggled to the nearby rocks. ‘‘At that point I’d realised that I’d made a serious mistake.’’

He couldn’t really fathom the cost of fixing the sculpture. ‘‘They were throwing big figures at me, ‘that’s a hundred thousand dollars, that’s taxpayer money’, figures that I couldn’t even fathom. I’m never going to receive a pay cheque of that magnitude.’’ He expected to face repercussions. The Water Whirler was installed in Wellington 2006, with installation pushing the final bill up to $1 million. In 2016 it was turned off for repairs.

Horrocks said this month, the sculpture was scheduled to be returned to full operation. ‘‘Now it’s going to be months.’’

The cost to fix would be six figures, he said. It would require specialist knowledge to fix the wand, which was extremely complex.

STUFF The would-be daredevil has apologised for breaking Wellington’s Water Whirler. Hunter Macdonald says he did not know the waterfront sculpture was by Len Lye.