Whanganui artist Hamish Horsley gives Transient Being sculpture to city

(From left) John Maihi, Bill Milbank, Sandy Nepia and Carol Rameka unveil the Transient Being sculpture. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui artist Hamish Horsley has gifted his Transient Being sculpture to Whanganui.

Horsley, who was brought up in the city, has spent much of his life in England and Asia.

He made the stone sculpture in his South London studio in 1998, for an exhibition in a Dorset sculpture garden.
After that it was in a small South London botanical garden, until New Zealand High Commissioner Paul East asked for it, for the foyer of New Zealand House.

Much more recently Horsley got a phone call, saying the art work had to be moved. He was back in Whanganui and talked to his long-time friend, gallery owner Bill Milbank, "legendary for his outrageous ideas".

Sculptor Hamish Horsley speaks before his work is unveiled, with kaumātua John Maihi at right. Photos / Bevan Conley

"He said 'Why don't we bring it to Whanganui?'," Horsley said.

Many emails later the sculpture was crated and on one of the last Air New Zealand flights out of London before lockdown.

It spent the next months in Milbank's gallery, and the Leedstown Trust provided Oamaru stone for its base.

It was officially unveiled at Pukenamu Queen's Park on Thursday.

It's something like a miracle for the sculpture to end up on Pukenamu, Horsley said. After karakia from kaumātua John Maihi it was "starting to settle" and he felt delighted and privileged by its new position.

Whanganui councillor Helen Craig said it was important to have Whanganui art work in Pukenamu Queen's Park, with the Matt Pine cones recently restored to the Whanganui War Memorial Centre an example.

More public art for the central city is in the process of being finalised, and she hopes the Pukenamu hilltop will one day get officially recognised as a Tohu Whenua, a place important in New Zealand history.

"To have this beautiful piece here, probably in the middle, it's just fantastic," she said.

There has been another important art work in the courtyard, Maihi said. It was the pou Te Taurawhiri, carved in the library, unveiled in 1984 and erected in the courtyard. It has been buried on Pukenamu, he said, but could be recovered.

"The way things are going, we might have several places to keep it."