Steel in southern sky

By NANCY CAWLEY

Backed by the glittering glass facade of the new Christchurch Art Gallery, a stainless-steel work by sculptor Graham Bennett is causing motorists' heads to turn.

The seven tapering, stainless-steel poles, 19m high and leaning at a 9-degree angle, are topped by skeletal steel shapes, which differ in design and range in length from 8m to 10m.

When the gallery opens on Saturday, a computerised programme based on the phases of the moon will set the shapes turning slowly. The work is called Reasons for Voyaging and "it has all gone enormously well", says Bennett.

When he was invited to design the sculpture by gallery director Tony Preston and the gallery's Australian architect David Cole, the site was a dusty carpark and Bennett had to imagine how it would look, and how the building and installation would interact.

"Building the gallery took longer than planned, and this gave me plenty of time to let ideas evolve. Nevertheless, a lot of big decisions had to be made at the beginning - where the foundations would be sited, where the lighting for each pole needed to be."

Nelson-born Bennett gained his Diploma of Fine Arts at Canterbury University in 1970, and during his international career has worked with everything from painting and print-making to photography, ceramics, and large and small sculptures.

In Tokyo, a gallery owner from Paris told Bennett his work "contained the artistic solutions of the new world to everything that is wrong with the old world".

Part of Bennett's brief was that the work should have a link with the natural world. "I wanted to bring in something to do with the Pacific - the journeying and voyaging, the tides and movement. So the skeletal shapes are the same proportions as the segment of the globe that makes up the Pacific and are almost identical in shape to the Polynesian outrigger canoes drawn on Captain Cook's first voyage."

The shapes are powered by computer-controlled motors, so each can move independently.

The sculptor chose stainless steel for its appearance as well as durability. "I like the ambiguous, ever-changing quality of stainless steel in the sky. It catches the light, disappears on occasions, and then is more prominent.

"I selected stainless steel for the skeletal shapes but I didn't want the poles to have a mirror-like surface because of an interfering factor. So I devised a method of sand-blasting with aluminium-oxide sand, to give a roughened, textured surface and to provide a kind of tooth on to which pollutant elements can adhere."

On the south-facing Worcester Boulevard side of each pole is a wooden panel, the totara donated by Ngai Tahu. "This looks to the Polynesian and Pakeha tradition of the wooden warmth of doorways," says Bennett. "And it choreographs arrival at the gallery entrance."

These wooden components may eventually show some wear and tear but Bennett is unperturbed.

"The sculptures, like the gallery, will be washed down regularly, but where people touch - greasy fingers, children's icecream and chips ... there will be discoloration that will darken the lower parts of the poles. I don't want that cleaned off. It will be part of it growing in that environment."

Working alongside Bennett, who has been busy with other big projects, was Jeff Golding, a Nelson marine engineer, who handled the specialised welding and drive elements.

"It has taken the two of us two years," says Bennett. A team of about 40 volunteers and professional workers has also been involved.

The starkly beautiful totems provide a felicitous complement to the art gallery, their impact differing with each hour.

"I am looking forward to the reflections ... vignettes of the sculptures in the glass. As the sun shines over the gallery in the morning, some aspects of the sculptures will reflect back into the darkened windows, and the reverse will occur in the evening," says Bennett.

Gallery fact file

The new Christchurch Art Gallery: Te Puna O Waiwhetu, which Prime Minister Helen Clark will open at 10am on Saturday, is sited opposite the historic Arts Centre on Worcester Boulevard and Montreal St, and cost $47.5 million to build (public fundraising contributed $15.26 million). It replaces the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, which closed in June 2001.

The three-level gallery, with nearly 3000sq m of exhibition space, was designed by the Buchan Group. The chief design architect was David Cole, whose CV includes the No 1 Martin Place-Sydney GPO redevelopment.

Forty per cent of the city's permanent collection of 5500 items will be displayed in the new gallery at any one time, compared to the Robert McDougall's 8 per cent capacity.

The gallery's director is Tony Preston, formerly Robert McDougall Art Gallery director (since 1995).

The opening exhibitions include - The Allure of Light: Turner to Cezanne, European Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Victoria (until July 27); a W.A. Sutton retrospective (September 28); Te Puawai o Ngai Tahu; paintings by 12 contemporary Ngai Tahu (August 24); and Virginia King's Antarctic Heart installation (until November).