Walk of art in the heart of the city

An $850,000 wind sculpture will be the first in a proposed "sculpture walk" around the Viaduct Basin. But, as BERNARD ORSMAN reports, the project has cash problems.

A sculpture walk around Auckland's Viaduct Harbour is about to get its first permanent artwork, an $850,000 wind sculpture by Japanese artist Susumu Shingu.

But plans for a $2 million water sculpture by the same artist have been derailed by the collapse of the New Zealand corporate sponsor, believed to be Qantas New Zealand.

Qantas New Zealand deputy chairman David Belcher said he was unaware of a sponsorship deal of that magnitude, which would have had to come before the board.

A series of temporary large outdoor sculptures fashioned to add sparkle to the harbour has also hit trouble. An individual sponsor - again thought to have links to Qantas New Zealand - withdrew $50,000, which was to have paid for the installation of a skeletal steel boat structure by Tahitian-based German artist Andreas Dettloff.

The setbacks follow a mixture of praise and scorn when two of New Zealand's best-known artists, Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert, created the first temporary sculpture Skylight IV last July.

Their work involved two tip-trucks, fluorescent lights and spinnaker cloth, and cost $28,000.

After three years of planning and commissioning artists for the sculpture walk, the Auckland City Council is set to finalise a contract with Susumu Shingu to install a 10-metre wind sculpture on the public walkway between Fanshawe St and Waitemata Plaza.

Barring problems obtaining resource consent, the kinetic sculpture could be in place early next year.

The sculpture is being paid for by the P.A. Edmiston Trust, set up by insurance director Philip Edmiston, who died in 1946. He had wanted Auckland to be enriched with works of art.

Andrew Bogle, a former Auckland Art Gallery curator organising the sculpture walk, said the wind sculpture was an abstract work of two rotating wings and winglets bearing a strong connection with Auckland's marine environment.

"It will be one of the most popular and successful major sculptures in New Zealand."

Susumu Shingu made headlines last November when he was blown off a ladder while working on a wind-driven sculpture on Browns Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

The 63-year-old artist was flown to Auckland Hospital by rescue helicopter with a slight spinal fracture.

Mr Bogle said the sculpture walk appraisal group had been unable to finalise corporate sponsorship for a $2 million sculpture that would have risen 18.5 metres out of the water in the harbour.

Concept designs show a work which has arms with suspended beakers catching a continuous shower of water.

Mr Bogle said a lamentable lack of support from art funding bodies and corporations was not going to deter the appraisal group from pushing for up to eight stunning, large-scale artworks in one of the most prominent public spaces in New Zealand.

Work was continuing on an alternative deal to bring Andreas Dettloff's sculpture, Boat to Go and Come Back, to the harbour and on other projects.

These include an ambitious work by Auckland artist Peter Roche on Te Whero Island, on the eastern side of the harbour.

Called Twister, the 30m sculpture would consist of three giant tubular steel spirals tapering out from a narrow base, lit with rising and falling colours of neon light.

In Market Square, design work was complete for Tidal Piston, by Sydney artist Ari Purhonen. It would have a giant stainless steel piston set into the square rising and falling to a computer-set tidal clock.

Rotorua-based Maori artist Lyonel Grant and Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert were others developing proposals for permanent works.

A city councillor with a passion for the sculpture walk, Kay McKelvie, said she hoped securing sponsorship for the first permanent work would be the catalyst for other sponsors to get involved.

"The long-term objective is not only to have interesting sculptures but to make the Viaduct Harbour a place to go in its own right."

So far, the council has given $250,000 to pay for an artwork facilitator (Mr Bogle), the selection of artists, commissioning detailed design proposals and resource consent applications.

A further $300,000 has been provided in the coming year's budget, much of which will go towards obtaining resource consents, estimated to cost $60,000 to $80,000 for each permanent work.

Corporate sponsors have provided $100,000 for the preparation of contract negotiations.