Sculpture carries pointed message
A new sculpture installed in protest outside Environment Canterbury’s (ECan) headquarters is likely to stay – for now.
Artist and activist Sam Mahon installed his new artwork, Vigil, on the forecourt of ECan’s new Christchurch offices yesterday.
About 30 people attended the unveiling, including Christchurch mayoral candidate John Minto and Green MP Eugenie Sage.
Vigil is a bronze-cast sculpture of Catherine Sintenie, a teacher and conservationist who died of cancer in 2014.
Sintenie was a rivers advocate who campaigned for a return to democracy at ECan.
The sculpture served as a memorial to Sintenie and would remind the regional council of time past and promises broken, Mahon said.
‘‘She was a good and reasonable person, she believed in the rule of law, and she wrote her submissions accordingly and awaited change.
‘‘Every promise made to us has been broken.
‘‘They wasted her time, but Cathy didn’t have time to waste.’’
Vigil includes a pointed criticism of David Caygill, deputy chair of the ECan commissioners.
An inscription paraphrases a conversation Sintenie allegedly had with Caygill.
It reads: ‘‘Cathy: we have negotiated in good faith with farmers and ECan for fifteen years, and every promise made to us has been broken. Caygill: That may well be so, but we didn’t break the law.’’
Caygill said on Monday he had not seen the sculpture or its inscription, but he remembered Sintenie well. ‘‘She was a lovely person. ‘‘She was certainly passionately interested in water.’’
He said he remembered the conversation, which happened several years ago, but could not confirm the accuracy of the comment attributed to him.
He was unsure about what would happen to the sculpture.
‘‘As a memorial for Cathy, I’m keen that we treat any sculpture of her with proper respect.’’
Vigil follows a previous Mahonorganised campaign – a stone cairn installed in Cathedral Square during a public protest in 2010.
Mahon said Vigil was set on an old culvert from the Waitohi River.
He had planned to install the sculpture near the stone cairn, but putting it outside ECan’s new offices ‘‘was too good to resist’’, despite the risk it could be moved.
Sintenie’s husband, Ad, said the sculpture was ‘‘a beautiful sym- bol’’. ‘‘There’s a few people who speak out and Cathy was one of them.
‘‘I think there’s a lot of people who are behind what her vision and ideas were,’’ he said.
He hoped the sculpture would encourage others to speak out like his wife had.
‘‘It’s a beautiful symbol and I’m very pleased about that.
‘‘I’m sure Cathy would have been pleased about that as well.
‘‘She wasn’t one to take the limelight. But she is now.’’
ECan chief executive Bill Bayfield invited the protesters inside for tea. Some refused the offer. Bayfield said that because the sculpture was placed on a public reserve, it could remain for some time. There were no immediate plans to remove it.
Mahon’s previous works include a sculpture of Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith made from cow dung and a painting of Prime Minister John Key dead in an alleyway.