Sculptor's largest work pays homage to shot Whanganui mayor

Curator Mark Rayner with Katerina Smoldyreva's Distorted Monument at Gallery 85. Photo/Bevan Conley.

The Distorted Monument exhibition at Gallery 85 in Glasgow St is a triumph for its creator Katerina Smoldyreva.

During her Whanganui residency in July, the New Plymouth-based ceramic artist took on the formidable task of creating a large equine sculpture as a tribute to former Whanganui mayor Charles Mackay.

Mackay, the mayor who oversaw the construction of the Sarjeant Gallery and the Dublin St Bridge in the early years of the 20th century, was disgraced and imprisoned after being charged with the attempted murder of poet D'Arcy Cresswell.

Mackay was later shot and killed during a street riot in Berlin in 1929 and Smoldyreva said his story touched her deeply.

"I wanted to make a monument but it had to be different from those grand ones you see in Europe."

While constructing her fallen horse and rider, she made many miniatures or "sketches" of her ideas which are exhibited alongside the finished large-scale work.

The monument is the largest work she has ever undertaken and it had to be "deconstructed" into four separate pieces before it was transported to Smoldyreva's studio in New Plymouth for firing and back to Whanganui.

Smoldyreva hails from Ufa, the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan in southern Russia, where she studied at Bashkir State University.

The human condition is her inspiration, she says.

"I do not ask myself why I sculpt - I just cannot do without it."

She now lives in New Plymouth, where she is a curator at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and a teacher of ceramic sculpture.

The Distorted Monument is on show at 85 Glasgow St while the Rayner Brother's Gallery next door is showing the group exhibition Nightmare on Glasgow St during October.

Gallery hours are 11am to 3pm, Wednesday to Saturday.