Engineer sparks new life into art scene
If you’re a creative sort with a epic art project in mind, Helen Trappitt may be the woman to bring it to life.
The Christchurch woman is the brains behind many prominent transitional sculptures across the city, working alongside artists to combine her practical technical engineering knowledge with their bright idea.
Trappitt – a volunteer at Scape Public Art and the Centre of Contemporary Art – believed art made an important contribution to rebuilding the still earthquake damaged city.
The inventive side of the work was often ‘‘more fun and interesting’’ than engineering, and it broke the mould of engineers who were ‘‘generally perceived as being unimaginative and frankly a bit boring.
‘‘The reality is that the best engineers are those that are innovative and creative.’’
She said artists had a ‘‘different way of seeing things’’, and she had learned skills that had spilled over into into her day job as the director of a boutique structural engineering firm.
‘‘As well as thinking about the factors an engineer will always consider like: ‘How will it stand?’ ‘What are the load paths?’, you need to think ‘How will it look?’. If it doesn’t look how the artist intends people can miss the whole point of the work.’’
‘‘Working on these sculptures is really good for my engineering skills because each one is bespoke and unique and they’re not rectilinear, which most buildings are.’’
Trappitt had worked with aspiring artists on Scape’s Re:Activate Kids and Teens project, which offered young people the chance to design sculptures they wanted to see in their city. She helped the two winning designs – including a 2.5 metre steel branch replacing a missing limb on one of the park’s larger trees – to be installed in Hagley Park as part of Scape Public Art’s six-week festival.
Artist Ruby Williams, 15, saw the branch as a symbol of the rebuild and the replacement branch was a memory of what had been before. The job of installing the branch so it was safe and natural looking was a challenge assigned to Trappitt.
‘‘It was fantastic seeing the look on Ruby’s face when she saw the design she had sketched actually in place, at full scale.’’
Trappitt was also the brainchild behind the engineering of Judy Millar’s Call Me Snake on Manchester St, and the transformation of a vacant Christchurch lot into a giant Monopoly square on the corner of Manchester and Dundas streets, complete with novelty-size green houses and a digger playing piece.
Scape executive director Deborah McCormick said Helen was able to combine artistic inspiration with engineering expertise.
‘‘She has worked tirelessly, with passion, to solve many tricky engineering conundrums so the ideas of the artist could become a reality,’’ McCormick said.
''... the best engineers are those that are innovative and creative."
Helen Trappitt