Sculpture park to start off with big Boom Boom
New sculpture trail to feature 21 artworks
Taupō is set to become home to a sculpture trail featuring 21 artworks, including a metres-tall, mirror-finish dinosaur called Boom Boom. Resource consent was approved for the trail at the end of last month, and Taupō District Council has committed $100,000 towards the project to match funding raised by the Taupō Sculpture Trust.
Taupō Sculpture Trust chairman Chris Martin said they were very excited about the trail, it was a positive move for the town and had economic benefits too.
The plan came about as a marriage between the overall mission of the trust and the idea that some of the town’s public spaces were underused.
“We went to [council] a wee while ago with the idea that Riverside Park has been phenomenally successful for events like the Summer Concert but is otherwise under-utilised [by the public].
“You walk around there now and again and there are few people around.
“It felt like an opportunity.” The proposal is to establish a trail around Riverside Park next to Taupō‘s CBD.
A plan of the 21 proposed sites shows the trail dotted around the edge of the Riverside Park Amphitheatre, to ensure events such as the Summer Concert would remain unaffected, as well as scattered through the rest of Riverside Park.
The intent is for the works to be installed incrementally, with each one subject to separate council approval, but the cornerstone sculpture has been revealed in concept documents put before the council.
The first bespoke sculpture mooted for the trail is an eyecatching, seven-metre-tall work featuring a mirrored dinosaur atop a rock-like slab.
Boom Boom, commissioned by Taupō Sculpture Trust and designed by Slovenian-born and Aucklandbased sculptor Gregor Kregar, would use weathering steel for the ‘rock’ and mirror-polished stainless steel to form the balloon animal-like sauropod.
In Kregar’s concept art document, he explains the inspiration behind the piece.
“Taupō is an extremely important geological site and has produced two
of the world’s largest eruptions.
“My work makes reference to this history and how it has shaped and influenced the area.
“I propose to create a sculpture that incorporates a large rock form made from corten steel that echoes the giant boulders that would have been ejected by the volcanic force of the Taupō eruptions.
“On top of the 4-5 metre rock would stand a large mirror-polished stainless steel dinosaur, resonating with the pre-historic history of the location.”
The size of the sculpture and the zoning of the land meant the piece would need resource consent, as it would legally be deemed a building.
The second work set to join the trail is Flip, a red kinetic sculpture
previously sited on Roberts Street Reserve before the lakefront redevelopment.
Each proposed sculpture for the trail would need to be put before council, with the Taupō Sculpture Trust stating it hopes to commission pieces from a range of different artists, including tangata whenua.
Taupō District Mayor David Trewavas has also thrown his support behind the idea, and expressed the council’s support for the project in a letter in May.
“We are very excited about the trust further developing the sculpture trail concept at Riverside Park.
“We look forward to celebrating the Boom Boom installation with you and the community in the near future.”