Council rejects artwork position swap

TAKING ROOT: Windgrass on Fitzherbert St will be staying put. PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK

Featherston's Windgrass sculpture will stay put and will not be relocated to the site set aside for the proposed Paul Dibble camp sculpture.

A submission put forward to the South Wairarapa District Council to agree to moving the Windgrass sculpture on Fitzherbert St was opposed at the meeting yesterday.

Members of the Featherston Camp Memorial Trust submitted a letter asking the council to agree to change the location of the proposed Paul Dibble Featherston Camp sculpture.

The trust had been granted approval by the SWDC to install the sculpture and had obtained a resource consent to erect it on a site within the proposed Town Square precinct. However, the trust later decided the Featherston Camp sculpture would be better placed where the Windgrass sculpture was situated and that the artworks should swap places.

"This alternative site would allow the iconic sculpture to stand out as an entity in its own space. This will allow greater engagement with passing traffic and pedestrians," said the letter submitted to council by the trust.

But at the SWDC meeting, two trust representatives apologised to the council for their request to move the Windgrass sculpture and, on reflection, had decided a better approach would be for artist Paul Dibble and Rebecca Wilson of Earthworks, who designed the plans for the proposed Town Square, to decide together on a suitable spot.

"The Windgrass sculpture was an idea we thought could work," said trust secretary Jean McDowall.

"We've talked to Paul Dibble and he said he would work with Rebecca to work out where is best to locate the sculpture so its integrity is preserved."

When asked by councillors how the trust would fund the sculpture they said that for now they remained unsure.

"We can't be certain of funding, it's a lot of money and we can't ask ratepayers."

The trust had recently been turned down in their application for $250,000 from Trust House to fund the sculpture, which would commemorate the Featherston Military Camp.

Two-thirds of New Zealand troops were trained at the Featherston camp for World War I, before trekking over the Rimutaka Hill and sailing to war.

SWDC Mayor Adrienne Staples said the council did not support the proposal requesting relocation of the Windgrass sculpture.

"Council's preference is for it to remain where it is now but we'll liaise with Rebecca to ensure that [the camp sculpture] is shown off to its best advantage."

The Featherston Camp sculpture plans call for 10 columns with relief work on each side, leaning forward like soldiers walking uphill.

Paul Dibble has built a similar work in Hyde Park, London - a series of column-like standards carved in New Zealand themes - to honour the nation's European war dead.