With a wing and a prayer

By LINDA HERRICK

Their wings span 4m across, yet these birds will never fly.

Instead, four massive stainless steel albatrosses created by Auckland sculptor Greer Twiss are intended to do more than invoke marvel as works of art. He hopes they will also stimulate thought about the plight of their real-life counterparts, whose numbers are plummeting worldwide as a result of fishing practices and environmental degradation.

Twiss' birds, entitled Flight Trainer for Albatross, will be unveiled on the Quay St pedestrian entry to Princes Wharf on August 9, as part of a series of public sculptures gifted by the Auckland City Sculpture Trust.

Twiss, who has been working on the birds in a Glenfield workshop, says though he has never seen an albatross in flight, he has seen one on the ground in the South Island. "You don't really see them unless you are in an isolated place or out at sea."

Three of Twiss' albatrosses will be strapped to a beam structure, "like a Zimmer frame", while the fourth is resting on a ladder. The placement is a deliberate environmental message.

"The strapping is apparent," explains Twiss. "There are loops around the wings which look as though they are knotted and tied. The work is called Flight Trainer so it is sort of saying these birds need to be held up, have a support structure. It's a metaphor for that conservation thing."

The stainless steel he is using to evoke the swoop and sweep of the birds will be left unpolished. "Basically, the work is going to be quite raw. I want that industrial look."

It's ironic that Twiss' birds will mark the beginning of a new era in public sculpture in Auckland. His bronze Karangahape Rd Fountain, on the corner of K Rd and Symonds St, was one of the first modern sculptures commissioned as a nod to the city's creative forces. It was installed in 1969. "It's a big gap," he chuckles.

Included in the trust plans are Christine Hellyar's Water, already installed by the Domain duckpond and, coming up, works by six more artists including Neil Miller and Charlotte Fisher.