Legal power behind Christchurch's newest public art icon
Aug 2008
The work is to be installed at the Stewart Plaza, on the corner of High and Colombo Streets, in central Christchurch.
"We're extremely pleased to be involved with this project and our association with the Art & Industry Biennial Trust," Anderson Lloyd Partner, Jen Crawford said.
"We are the honorary solicitors to the Art and Industry Biennial Trust and advise on a range of commercial issues concerning the art industry. The firm is a supporter of the 'SCAPE Biennial of Art in Public Space' and has assisted in securing approvals for several high profile artworks throughout Christchurch City, including the Phil Price Kinetic Sculpture 'Nucleus' and this latest work 'Flour Power' by, Regan Gentry," she said.
The Trust will celebrate the opening of its biennial of art in public space, SCAPE 2008, with the unveiling of the sculpture on 18 September 2008.
The sculpture is the first new public sculpture to be commissioned by the Christchurch City Council’s Public Art Advisory Group. Funding for the 13-metre high work has been made available from the Council’s recently reinstated Art in Public Places Fund and a substantial donation from the estate of the late Sir Robertson Stewart and Adrienne, Lady Stewart.
Flour Power, on the redeveloped site of the former Stewart Fountain, will also mark the contribution of the Stewart family to the city of Christchurch.
The Trust, with the support of industry partners, is managing the development and installation of Flour Power. This is the seventh permanent artwork the Trust has project managed and the fourth in partnership with the Christchurch City Council.
Artist Regan Gentry says: “To the imaginative, Flour Power will give the appearance that a giant has walked through the city gathering lamp-posts like flowers, collecting them into a bunch, wrapping a tyre around them and placing the whole lot as a centerpiece in Stewart Plaza”.
“Flour Power has a point to make. In Canterbury, fields of crops have given way to fields of houses. Rows of wheat have been replaced by rows of streetlights. Farm tractors have grown smaller and multiplied exponentially, growing sleeker and faster, modified to ‘pull chicks’ instead of ploughs,” he says.
Adrienne, Lady Stewart says the work will be a good fit for Stewart Plaza. “The funding support confirms this city’s commitment to develop quality public artworks. Flour Power will have an impressive presence in Stewart Plaza, a site which has seen various artworks come and go over the years.”
Anthony Wright, Chair of the Art & Industry Biennial Trust and the Public Art Advisory Group, says reinstatement of a fund for public art is a wonderful gift to the city and its residents.
“Regan Gentry’s work is a tribute to the richness and diversity of our arts in New Zealand and a perfect fit for the Stewart Plaza, where it will provide a welcoming space for all who use this popular corner of the city,” he says.
SCAPE 2008 (19 September – 2 November) is the fifth biennial of art in public space staged in Christchurch. This year’s theme Wandering Lines: Towards a New Culture of Space will see the temporary placement of many major works of public art around the city, by 25 artists from 15 countries.
