Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Creative temporary sculpture series launched
An adventurous public artwork by fine arts senior lecturer Maddie Leach has launched One Day Sculpture, a nationwide
series of temporary artworks.
Miss Leach created Perigee #11 on Thursday; the first of 21 works in the series. The piece involved three key parts: a
renovated cedar-lined boatshed in Wellington’s Breaker Bay, the specified 24-hour time period, and weather forecasts
made a year ago by forecaster Ken Ring for a huge storm on August 28. The forecasts were published in newspapers as part
of the work.
Miss Leach says the weather on the day being the opposite of the forecast added to the exhibit.
“My work often has a sense of expectation of what people bring to the work. If the storm had turned up, it would have
been a very different work.”
The storm would have been viewed from the boatshed, had it hit, Miss Leach says, the boatshed itself about “what was
original and what was new”.
“There were very strong differences outside and inside.”
Miss Leach says her work was a commentary on risk, expectation and speculation. “The work is about potential. Does it
fail because the storm’s not there? No, I knew it was very possible it wasn’t going to eventuate. Weather forecasting is
an inexact science.”
Project director and Associate Professor in fine arts David Cross says One Day Sculpture took on a life of its own in
the planning stages.
“It takes a look at temporary sculptural practice and is hugely ambitious. We aim to produce outstanding work in the
field of public sculpture.”
One Day Sculpture is coordinated by Litmus, the School of Fine Arts’ research centre. The event involves 21 artworks
across five New Zealand centres. Six of the 21 were commissioned by Litmus. A book about the series is also planned.
ends