Trying to fix a sorry record

Andrew Smith and Rozelle Edwards are fervent battlers for more art in the streets and public places of Auckland. Picture / Greg Bowker

There's something about birthdays that brings out the public spirit in Auckland art circles. Four years ago, Lyndy Sainsbury threw a birthday party and asked friends to do something for public sculpture.

Two years later, when it was property investor Adrian Burr's 60th birthday, he asked friends not to give him a present but to make a donation to the trust Sainsbury and friends had set up.

That trust is the Auckland City Sculpture Trust. This month, Prime Minister and Arts Minister Helen Clark unveiled its third public artwork.

Standing 6.5m high and 7.2m across on Viaduct Harbour Ave, Raupo Rap pays tribute to port workers and migrant ships. The artist is Denis O'Connor, whose father was killed while working on the wharf.

The sculpture consists of four granite pillars supporting a stainless-steel cargo hook - the tool of trade of the artist's father.

Trust chairman Andrew Smith says the lives of many Aucklanders are untouched by public art and sculpture and this is an opportunity to put some quality, original art in front of them. "What we are trying to do is to stimulate people's interest. Some will find it controversial and others will find it tame."

Smith has been interested in the visual arts since the 1970s. Part-owner and manager of Metropolitan Glass, he is an unassuming but engaging patron of the arts. He was a member of the Prospect art-collecting group that sold up in the 1980s. These days he is a member of the Blythe Collection.

Smith was corralled by Sainsbury and property investor Richard Didsbury to set up the sculpture trust.

John Gow, who has a passion for sculpture and is developing Connells Bay Sculpture Park on his Waiheke Island property, was another logical choice.

Auckland City has a dismal record when it comes to public sculpture. A council-backed sculpture walk around Auckland's Viaduct Harbour was abandoned after funding problems and controversy over the siting of an $850,000 wind sculpture by Japanese artist Susumu Shingu.

Then there has been the sorry record of protecting public artworks, including Terry Stringer's Aotea Square Mountain Heap, destined for the scrapheap until there was a public outroar; and Michio Ihara's Wind Tree, which remains in storage after being removed from Queen Elizabeth Square in 2002. The environment was hardly conducive to a private-sector attempt at a public cause.

Smith and the trust's development manager, Rozelle Edwards, say the Wellington Sculpture Trust has been an invaluable source of advice.

The secret to that trust's success has been a good relationship with the Wellington City Council and strong support from funders. This has seen 15 public sculptures installed in Wellington with another eight on the way.

One sponsor, Meridian Energy, has helped to fund six wind sculptures.

It's no secret the Auckland City Sculpture Trust has been slow to get going and had a frustrating relationship with the Auckland City Council.

It's not a situation Smith and Edwards want to dwell on overmuch, because there has been a thaw in relations over the past month, but it did take direct action from distinguished Auckland artist Greer Twiss over his damaged sculpture Flight Trainer for the Albatross to knock some sense into the council.

Angered over the fact that the sculpture had been damaged 15 months earlier and not reinstated, Twiss sent a letter to Mayor Dick Hubbard, signed "a very disaffected citizen of Auckland City". If the sculpture wasn't fixed, Twiss wrote, he wanted it removed and possibly re-sited off council land.

Smith had good reason to back the "senior artist". Metropolitan Glass sponsored the $150,000 aluminium sculpture - at the entrance to Princess Wharf - which sends an environmental message about the endangered albatross and its dependence on mankind for survival. It was the first public sculpture to be unveiled by the trust.

The trust's second gift to the city was Cytoplasm, by kinetic artist Phil Price, which was installed last year at the Viaduct Harbour. The eye-puzzling work is 5m tall with 16 pod-like ovoid shapes that rotate in the wind.

The work was displayed at the Sculpture on the Gulf exhibition at Waiheke Island in 2003 when funders came forward wanting to locate it in the city. Price was approached and agreed on the site.

Unlike Cytoplasm, the trust plans mostly site-specific art.

The next plan is to commission a $300,000 work for the corner of Wakefield and Queen Sts. But bureaucrats tried to rush the trust's artist selection process and it took intervention by Hubbard and councillors Penny Sefuiva and Christine Caughey to give the trust sufficient time.

The selection process involves the trust and an advisory panel of arts professionals and council representatives, convened by Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines.

The trust and the panel invite expressions of interest from about 10 artists they believe are suitable.

About three go on a short-list and are paid to develop their ideas and to produce models and prices. A winner is chosen. The trustees then have the "big job" of raising the money. Smith says there is money out there among art patrons and corporates but it is the same few who keep getting approached. Other art and culture causes are chasing the same dollars.

Edwards, who divides her time between the trust and raising funds for the $60 million Auckland Museum development, says Auckland corporates are largely unaware that if the city is to develop they have a responsibility to contribute to the aesthetics.

"Auckland doesn't have the number of public artworks that we would like," says Edwards, who came here from South Africa 10 years ago and taught art history before moving into arts administration.

Looking beyond the next project in Wakefield St, a good two years away, the trust has eyes on a site at Okahu Bay and the idea, promoted by John Gow, of the empty plinth.

A plinth in a busy pedestrian area would show a rotation of artworks. Artists would go through the selection process and produce a work for the site. After six months it would be sold. The plinth would then remain empty for a couple of months to generate curiosity about the next work. "It's all about having fun and celebrating the works when they are all in place," Smith says.

WHO'S WHO ON THE TRUST

ANDREW SMITH, chairman

Part-owner and manager of Metropolitan Glass, the country's largest supplier of glass to the building industry. Art collector since the 1970s and member of several art collecting groups.
JOHN GOW, treasurer

Co-owner of the Strada group of companies, which organises finance for musical theatre productions worldwide. With his wife, Jo, has a strong interest in the arts and theatre. They have been developing the Connells Bay Sculpture Park on their Waiheke Island property.

RICHARD DIDSBURY

Retired managing director of the Kiwi Income Property Trust. Involved with building the Vero Centre in Shortland St, renowned for large artworks in the public foyers. Developing a sculpture park at his Brick Bay home at Mahurangi.

PETER TATHAM

Highly regarded interior designer, passionate observer and collector of art.

LYNDY SAINSBURY

Trustee and chairwoman of the Museum Circle Foundation, set up to raise funds for the Auckland Museum stage two development. Board member of Auckland Athletics and patron of Auckland City Athletics.

ALEX SWNEY

Heart of the City chief executive. With his wife, Ange Marshall, owns the shoe and handbag fashion company Briarwood.

ADVISORY PANEL

Chris Saines, Auckland Art Gallery director (convener); Hamish Keith, art consultant; Dr Robin Woodward, Auckland University senior lecturer; Jackie O'Brien, curator for Sculpture on the Gulf; Dr Paul Tapsell, director of Maori at Auckland Museum; councillor Penny Sefuiva and council representatives Dr Jill McPherson and Mark Vinall.