Lyttelton sculpture to celebrate Antarctic connection

Thursday 10 September 2015

Lyttelton sculpture to celebrate Antarctic connection

Christchurch City Council today accepted a gift from the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Antarctic Society – a bronze sled dog sculpture.

Celebrating Lyttelton's Antarctic connections, the sculpture, by local artist Mark Whyte, will sit outside the Lyttelton Library on the comer of London and Canterbury streets.

"Sled Dog", a slightly-larger-than-life bronze sculpture of an Antarctic Huskie, symbolises the courage, energy and teamwork demonstrated by our early explorers and their dogs.

Banks Peninsula Ward Councillor Andrew Turner says he is delighted to see this project approved.

"This will be a new point of interest in the Lyttelton town centre as well as recognising and celebrating the importance of our historic and ongoing relationship with the Antarctic. I thank the Antarctic Society for their generous gift and look forward to this work being created and installed."

Sled dogs were working dogs used for transport across the frozen continent. Dogs were used at Scott Base, the New Zealand outpost in Antarctica, until 1994.

Mark Whyte's other sculptures include the twelve bronze busts of prominent Cantabrians at the Arts Centre and the statue of Charles Upham in Amberley.

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