DIMENSIONS change for 20monoliths

Press, 18 March 1988, Page 21

DIMENSIONS change for 20monoliths

Story:

GARRY ARTHUR

Photographs: DAVID ALEXANDER

Part of Spencer Park is beginning to look like an ancient Italian archaeological site. In the clearing and dotted in and out among the tall silver poplars are huge ragged blocks of white stone that look like the ruins of some long forgotten Roman temple.’

. \ People are working on them, not to make them more ruinous still, but to shape them into whatever sculptural form their creative spirit prompts.

[This is the first South Island stone sculpture symposium, a southern version of an artistic event which has taken place at Western Springs, Auckland, for the last three years, and just like those that have become popular in Australia and elsewhere in the world.

[ Twenty sculptors — some of tpem experienced in working with stone, others quite new to the material — are spending two months at the Spencer Park site doing their best to turn 20 limestone monoliths into three-di-mensional works of art. The limestone comes from Mount Somers, and is a bit harder and finer-grained than the more familiar Oamaru stone. Llew Summers, the Christchurch who organised the symposium, says a lot of the finer carved work on old stone buildings in Christchurch came from the same site.

I: Ten of the blocks are 2m tall by Im wide and the other 10 are of the same volume, but more cubic in shape.

! The participating sculptors are allowed to carve their stones into Anything they like. Llew Sumihers says the idea is to provide Christchurch with 20 new sculptures, and to stimulate interest in stone carving. |. "We are hoping to sell them," he says. "We are having a big exhibition on Easter Day.” The site was found for the (symposium by Waimairi District Council, which is sponsoring the event along with the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, Mair

Astley, Ltd, the Christchurch City Council, and the Southern Regional! Arts Council.

Llevy Summers considers it "just perfect," and the sculptors seem ]to agree as they happily chop, [chip, chisel and saw away at their huge blocks of stone under! the trees, or under makeshift aiwnings tied to rustic poles. Their only worry is whether their .pieces will be finished by Easter. Some began on February 5, but others arrived a bit late! and reducing such huge blocks of stone ito the desired shapes is a! long. (laborious process. Pneumatic tools have been discouraged by the organisers. “It is| a nice atmosphere here,”; says Llew Summers. “It is like a lot of! woodpeckers going at it. If we had a lot of power tools it woulc| be chaos." Most of the work is tending towards the figurative, but some will ibe abstract and some a mixture.

Bernard Maxwell, who had a one-man show at the C.S.A. Gallery recently, describes his sculpture hs “abstract and functional.’’ He is carving a tree-trunk with steps! up j one side and roots twining down. He found some

nice water-worn cavities at the back of the stone and finds they fit in well with his concept. The work is to be "played on and climbed up." The Auckland artist, Richard McWhannell, has also taken part in the Auckland sculpture symposium. His work, a playful adult and child, is similar to the one he carved in Auckland last year, except that he is placing the adult on its back this time — as recommended by those who saw his last one. A man having particular fun at the symposium is Don McAra, playwright and former teachers college tutor. Retirement has given him the chance to explore his love of art, and he is enjoying the challenge of stone. Already he has made a sculpted column from the stone of the demolished ANZ! bank in Cashel Street. At Spencer Park he is letting

the stone itself have quite a say _„in what develops. "I discovered a *-”heer sticking out of it, and it seems silly, but the stone actually does talk to you,” he says. “It is going to be a mother-and-child. I did not know where the child was going to be — until I saw!its ‘knee’ sticking out.” !

Another Christchurch artist, Stephen Gleeson, has chosen a mythological r subject — the Greek Minotaur.. He plans to give his tormented beast gilded horns, which he is having cast in bronze, to help relate it to the carved skull of another creature. The sheer size of the block proved too much for one sculptor, Sue Taylor. She was so discouraged by its bulk that Llew Summers brought her a somewhat smaller block, not of limestone but of pink Queensland sandstone, from a demolished building. She’ is carving a torso.

Another variation from the pale cream of the other stones is Bjorn Solheim’s buttery-yellow stone. It came from Mount Somers too, but is a markedly different colour. Solheim, who used to carve at the Riki-Rangi Centre at the Arts Centre, is making his first assault on stone, and says he is learning a lot. His theme is two old people in front of a carved meeting house. Jenny Doole, whose ideal it was to hold the Canterbury symposium, is turning her block of limestone into a small Mount Rushmore. Instead of the heads of politicians, however, hers will show the faces of the four winds. Familiar with clay, she is finding the stone both challenging and daunting. "I am not discouraged today,” she says, “but yesterday, I was exhausted.”

Many of the sculptors are living in the lodge on the site. Standing boldly in front’ of the lodge is Gwenda Maude Wheeler’s female figure. She comes from Takaka and has been working in stone for three years. Manukau City bought the stone sculpture she made there last year. "It is great to see them doing that,” she says. “Threedimensional works are missing in our public parks." She says it will be interesting to see how Christchurch reacts to the sculpture being made at Spencer Park. She hopes public bodies, institutions and corporations will buy some of the works.