Boy Walking has inquisitive kids talking
Can you climb him? Why isn’t he a girl? What’s he made of ? How did he get here? What’s his shoe brand?
Those were among the first questions a small group of art-loving
9 and 10-year-olds from Balmoral Primary School had when they walked, accompanied by teachers, into Potters Park to “meet” the newly installed Boy Walking sculpture.
Artist Ronnie van Hoult’s 5.6m hyper-realist sculpture arrived yesterday — trucked and craned into position in the wee, small hours.
Van Hoult, who used to live in the area, says the larger-than-life child strolls forward into the future with confidence and explores the notion of a child transitioning into adulthood.
The kids thought he was maybe heading to the nearby shops or KFC or McDonald’s; one thought he might want to climb a neighbouring tree. They were more intrigued by how he was made, what was used, and what brand his shoes might be (they look like adidas but aren’t because they have the wrong number of stripes).
Making Boy Walking was an
18-month procedure. Van Hoult devised a concept for Auckland Council which, when accepted, involved making a full-scale model of the sculpture cut from blocks of expanded polystyrene, using a CNC router with the moulds, then casting it in aluminium and painting it.
Improvements in 3D-design technology made it possible and while it sounds simple, involved numerous steps along the way. Because the internal structure of the $550,000 sculpture is heavy steel armature, it needed to be precisely engineered to support it from loads and prevailing winds, then installed perfectly on near-invisible footings in the park.
Some of those loads may well be children trying to climb the shiny structure, with “can you climb him?” the most popular question, followed by dogged attempts to do so. Those endeavours seemed to indicate the answer was, “no, you can’t”.
Teacher Madeline Henty said she fielded a few questions about why it was a boy and not a girl. Overall, though, the pupils seemed positive about the new addition to their neighbourhood.
Benji Gladding, 9, thought it was perfectly positioned and liked the movement of it; Irza Mehmood, 10, appreciated its well co-ordinated clothes, and Chloie Galanida, 10, thought it would draw more visitors to the park.