Anton Parsons

Education Resource

www.scapepublicart.org.nz Contents 1

SCAPE Public Art 2 The process of making public art 3 Map - Public Art Walkway 4 Education programme 5 Making the most out of your visit 6 Education opportunities 7 Artists and artworks: Antony Gormley, STAY (Ōtākaro–Avon River), 2015; Christchurch Arts Centre, 2016 8 Peter Atkins, Under Construction - Chaos and Order, 2015 9 Judy Millar, Call me Snake, 2015 10 Neil Dawson, Fanfare, 2015 11 Julia Morison, Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers, 2013 12 Mischa Kuball, Solidarity Grid, 2015 13 Anton Parsons, Passing Time, 2010 14 Regan Gentry, Flour Power, 2008 15 Phil Price, Nucleus, 2006 16 Understanding Art (junior worksheet) 17 Understanding Art (senior worksheet) 18 Opportunities for bi-cultural learning 19 SCAPE RAMS form 22

Generously supported by:

SCAPE 10 Education Resource SCAPE Public Art 2

Who are we? What is the SCAPE Public Art Season 2017?

SCAPE Public Art installs and promotes contemporary public SCAPE Public Art has evolved its presentation model from art in Christchurch city. Our gifting programme, which has a biennial delivery to an annual delivery of the SCAPE Public included 12 permanent artworks and the commissioning of Art Season. The SCAPE Public Art Season 2017 is open from more than 200 temporary public artworks, provides a unique October 7 - November 18. The artworks are created as a point of difference for the city. result of close collaboration between art and business, and form a SCAPE Public Art Walkway for everyone to enjoy. The high-quality contemporary public artworks enhance the urban centre and raise Christchurch’s profile as a destination The legacy artists included in the SCAPE Public Art Walkway locally, nationally and internationally. for Season 2017 are: Judy Millar, New Zealand/Germany; Peter Atkins, Australia; Antony Gormley, Britain; Julia Held in Christchurch’s central city public spaces and Morison, New Zealand; Anton Parsons, New Zealand; Regan supported through a range of partnerships SCAPE Public Gentry, New Zealand; Phil Price, New Zealand; Neil Dawson, Art is renowned for showcasing leading international New Zealand, and Mischa Kuball, Germany. contemporary artists, as well as being a springboard for new local talent. The Season 2017 exhibition, titled Time in Space (territories and flow), will exhibit works from an impressive mix of New Zealand artists curated and selected by Heather Galbraith.

For more information or updates visit our website www.scapepublicart.org.nz

SCAPE 10 Education Resource The process of making public art 3

The brief is provided to artists, who are invited to A public art A brief for the Christchurch for a site- opportunity and site artwork is design visit and to submit is identified developed a proposal in response to the brief Concept design proposals are reviewed by a selection panel based on the site and brief criteria

Artworks are installed on the site either by Sites, planning and the artist or partner consents [building client, depending on the Artists’ projects are and resource] are site and construction made in accordance investigated and contracts with engineering plans secured

SCAPE 10 Education Resource SCAPE Public Art Walkway – map 4

Through experiencing the SCAPE Public Art Walkway, students will be introduced to the artworks, with information about the artists, their ideas and techniques, and what this public art context is.

Students have the opportunity to respond to the artworks by expressing their ideas, thoughts, feelings, and visual responses through art-making activities.

By participating, students will develop a stronger understanding about the relationships between public art and the context in which it is situated, be that physical landscape, environmental, political, cultural, or social.

Please note: this map is current as of 01/08/2017.

Check our website for any updates before planning your visit.

SCAPE 10 Education Resource SCAPE Education 5

How to use this resource

The SCAPE Public Art Education Resource has been designed to support educators in creating exciting and engaging learning opportunities for students before, during and after their visit to the SCAPE Public Art Season 2017.

This Education Resource is linked to the New Zealand Curriculum and designed to assist teachers in planning and making the most of their visit to the artworks forming the SCAPE Public Art Walkway. It provides information about the SCAPE artworks and artists, their locations, how to book school groups for a walkway and/or art-making experience, and a Risk Assessment Management Strategy (RAMS) form.

The information on the artists can be used directly as a handout for students and as a starting point with prompts for further investigation. Likewise, the Understanding Art worksheets are suitable for reproduction for students to use. The RAMS form is available for staff to use directly to support school trips.

Ka tipu te whaihanga Creativity will strengthen Further resources: Exciting opportunities connected to the 2017 Season are available to book, please contact Josie.

All Education enquiries:

Josie Whelan Education & Community Engagement Manager

SCAPE Public Art Phone: 03 365 7994 Email: [email protected] School bookings: www.scapepublicart.org.nz/public-programme/school-bookings

• A printable fold out A3 resource, including a map of the artworks, is available on the SCAPE Public Art website: www.scapepublicart.org.nz. • Teacher Resource on Antony Gormley • Activity sheet on STAY SCAPE 10 Education Resource Making the most of your visit 6

Before you visit the SCAPE Public Art Season 2017 we suggest you explore the artists’ work provided in this resource, including the links. • Visit our website www.scapepublicart.org.nz to investigate Exploring public art is an important way for this further. young people to reconnect with the city in • Encourage thinking on the ideas presented in the artworks a positive way. It enables them to engage through a group mind-map, which can include sketches and with a range of ideas presented through a other visuals to represent ideas. variety of artworks by the artists to inspire, Do any of your students know the work of any of the artists • challenge, and reconsider how public space already? Record which artists and what prior knowledge they have. is used in Christchurch. During your visit, take your time to look at each artwork and reflect on it. • Record information in a range of ways through photography, drawings and notes in a sketchbook. • Discuss the artworks with each other. Use the Address these key words through Understanding an Artwork worksheet as a guide to get you discussion or definitions: thinking about it. • Ask questions! Consider why the artist has worked in this way. Contemporary art Permanent artwork After your visit, look back at the ideas being presented by the artists. • Review any initial mind-maps and consider if the artists used any of these ways of working. Site-specific artwork Temporary artwork • Write a review of one or several of the artworks. • Write a journal report or blog about your visit to the artwork. • Create a presentation on one of the artists and his or her public artwork. • Use your recordings from the visit to create more artworks in response to your experience on the SCAPE Public Art Walkway, taking inspiration from these artists and others.

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Education opportunities 7

The SCAPE Public Art Education Programme offers practical, art-making activities and guided tours of the SCAPE Public Art Walkway as ways of responding to the artworks presented, and to develop further understanding of them. The programme addresses topics relevant to each of the artworks, and as such covers a wide range of conceptual approaches and a variety of ways of working. For the duration of the SCAPE Public Art Season 2016, free art-making activities connected to the artworks are available to book. These are linked to the New Zealand Curriculum and are accessible for students from Year 1 through to Year 13. Young people are encouraged to develop analytical frameworks for understanding the conceptual content of the artworks. They will build on existing art-making skills and develop new ways of working and thinking about the artworks through exploration, discussion and recording information in response to the artworks.

Teachers can select from, and book school groups into a number of activities, including the following options:

• Opportunity for groups to collaborate with (Christchurch/Cook Island) artist Nina Oberg Humphries 16-20 October to create a unique cultural installation and individual pieces • Short guided tour, plus follow-up activity • Self directed or guided tour of SCAPE Public Art walkway • Activity related to the work STAY by Antony Gormley • Create cyanotype prints inspired by Tree Houses for Swap Dwellers by Julia Morison • Collage activity based on Under Construction - Chaos and Order by Peter Atkins • Art activity connected to 2017 international artist.

All activities are available at the following set times or alternative times can be arranged as required.

Schedule is flexible - let us work with you to make your visit to SCAPE Public Art a success! For more details on the activities available please visit • 10am – 11:30am our website www.scapepublicart.org.nz

• 1pm – 2.30pm

For school bookings please use the link: www.scapepublicart.org.nz/public-programme/school-bookings

Phone: 03 365 7994 For education enquiries email: [email protected]

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Antony Gormley 8 STAY, 2015 Ōtākaro–Avon River, and the Arts Centre, 2016

STAY comprises two identical cast-iron figures from Antony Gormley’s Polyhedra series. The two identical works interpret a human body as a rising form of bold crystalline cells; both figures link time, place and consciousness. They look down – one into the moving waters of the Ōtākaro–Avon River and the other, to the paved ground of the Arts Centre. They are made of a concentrated earth material: iron. The works take a single moment of human time and place it in two distinct contexts: a tree- lined river where the trees were unscathed and the river never ceased to flow and a historic building that, although damaged, survived the quake. Sited in the Arts Centre the work is glimpsed laterally within the horizontal shelter of an imposed architectural order, while the other is immersed in nature. In these places the materialised memory of this particular body acts as measure and marker both in a human-built habitat and the elemental world.

Artist biography

Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. Through a critical engagement with both his own body and those of others, his work has developed the potential, opened up by sculpture since the 1960s, to confront fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries to Visit the artist’s website: www.antonygormley.com identify the space of art as a place of becoming in which new behaviours, thoughts and feelings can arise. Gormley has won multiple awards and his work is held in significant collections worldwide. He is an Honorary Fellow of Questions to ask students: the Royal Institute of British Architects, an Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. These artworks are located in two different sites: standing in Ōtākaro–Avon River and within the Arts Centre.

Did you see both works? What feelings do you have when the surroundings for each sculpture changes? Why do you think the artworks are placed in these locations? Which viewpoint do you like the most for each of the works? Why? How can you describe the shapes that each figure is made of? What kind of feelings do the poses of each figure give you?

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Peter Atkins 9 Under Construction – Chaos and Order, 2015

Under Construction – Chaos and Order is the work by Melbourne-based Peter Atkins developed for SCAPE 8 New Intimacies. Atkins’ art is primarily serial abstract painting, often generated by documenting readymade forms he encounters in the urban environment, such as road signage, medicine packets, record sleeves or train tickets. He then removes all text and figurative elements from these forms to leave abstract colour fields, which are the basis of his work. He is particularly interested in the cultural associations of forms with the capacity to evoke memory, nostalgia or our shared history of past experiences.

Under Construction – Chaos and Order was designed during Atkins’ site visit to Christchurch, where he was struck by the number of directional signs in the city. The work is a double-sided installation, comprised of panels based on lane-management road signs, many of which are unique to the Christchurch rebuild. These have had their directional arrows removed, leaving a striking geometric pattern in the familiar reflective surface. The layout of the panels differs on each side of the work. One side is arranged randomly, engaging with the Chaos – obstacles, shards, dead ends, blockages – and alluding to feelings of uncertainty, confusion and frustration experienced by residents trying to navigate the city centre. The opposite side presents Order, in which the panels are arranged systematically, signalling a return to routine, as well as optimism about the future. The work has been fabricated by local road-signage company Fulton Hogan using the same materials as the signs that populate the city.

Artist biography

Peter Atkins is a celebrated Australian contemporary artist and an important representative of Australian art in the International arena. Over the past 25 years, he has exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Korea and Visit the artist’s website: www.peteratkins.com.au Taiwan. He has been awarded residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the British School in Rome and Green Park in New Delhi, as well as Australia Council Studio residencies in Barcelona and Los Angeles. In 1994, he was sole Australian representative Questions to ask students: and gold medal recipient for his work titled World Journal at the VIII Triennale in India. This work later toured extensively throughout Australia. In 1996-97 his work was included What everyday object has been used as the inspiration for this in Systems End – Contemporary Art in Australia curated by William Wright and Takeshi artwork? Kanazawa, which travelled to OXY Gallery, Osaka; Hakone Open-Air Museum, Tokyo; Dong Look at it on both sides: how are the sides similar or different? Ah Gallery, Seoul and the Kaoshiung Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan. In 1999, Atkins’ work was Which side do you prefer? Why? featured in Five Continents and One City in Mexico City, curated by Gao Minglu, and in Looking around you now, what everyday item could you turn into 1999 and 2003 he exhibited at the ARCO International Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid. an artwork? Peter Atkins lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Judy Millar 10 Call me Snake, 2015

Judy Millar is one of New Zealand’s foremost painters. Her work has garnered critical acclaim locally and internationally, and she represented New Zealand at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Central themes of her work include the relationships between canvas and paint, between stasis and movement, and the place of painting in art history. Millar is best known for her large-scale abstract paintings on vinyl-printed canvases, which loop and undulate through architectural spaces, exploring ideas of scale, time and place. Her work for SCAPE 8, Call me Snake, is her first public art commission, and pushes these ideas beyond the enclosed architectural spaces she has previously worked with into the central Christchurch landscape.

The work, comprising vibrant graphics of Millar’s looped paintings adhered to five intersecting flat planes, draws inspiration from the forms found in pop-up books. The colourful piece adds a dramatic and rhythmic counterpoint to the city’s current urban landscape – a mix of flattened sites, construction zones and defiant buildings that remained standing through the quakes. The work employs theatricality, playfulness and visual trickery, whereby the viewer is unsure about the work’s flatness or three- dimensionality. It has been designed to offer a different perspective from each angle. The bright colours interrupt the grey of the work’s surrounds, and as buildings pop up around it, Call me Snake offers an optimistic provocation – ‘imagine what could be here’.

Artist biography

As a child Judy Millar was sure that there must be something hiding behind the image of the world she saw before her eyes – a hidden reality or at least a prop holding up Visit the artist’s website: www.judymillar.com what everyone around her was referring to as “the world”. She never found the secret of what lay behind that image, but her childhood dream turned into a preoccupation Questions to ask to students: with turning things inside out in order to see them better. In 2009, when she represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale, she forced [the] shaped and flowing How can you describe this artwork? canvases into jarring juxtaposition with the Baroque architecture. Does it look different from further away than close up and, if so, how? Judy Millar lives between Auckland’s wild West Coast and her studio in the historic Describe the scale of this artwork. city of Berlin, Germany. For various exhibitions she created ribbons of painting and What viewpoint do you find most interesting? Why? suspended them in space and into spaces: A Better Life, Berlin (2010); The Path of Luck, Palazzo Bembo, Italy (2011); The Rainbow Loop, MgK Otterndorf, Germany (2012); Be Do Be Do Be Do, IMA, Brisbane, (2013), Space Work 7, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington (2014), and The Model World at the Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery (2015). Her commission for SCAPE 8 is her first public sculptural commission.

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Neil Dawson 11 Fanfare, 2015

New Zealand’s largest public sculpture, Fanfare, is a permanent landmark. It stands tall over the Canterbury Plains at Chaney’s Corner beside the northern motorway. The artwork has progressed through an extraordinary journey over the past 10 years to find its home in Christchurch, the birth city of its notable sculptor, Neil Dawson. This visionary six-storey-high sphere (20 metres in diameter and weighing 25 tonnes) is covered in 1.5-metre kinetic pinwheel fans and is illuminated in a spectrum of colours by night.

Originally commissioned in 2004, it was suspended from the Sydney Harbour Bridge to mark the New Year in 2005. It was donated to Christchurch by the City of Sydney in 2007. Christchurch City Council, SCAPE Public Art and Dawson worked together to install Fanfare at Christchurch’s northern entrance. At this time, when Christchurch has lost many of its landmarks, Fanfare plays an important role in creating a dynamic entranceway to the city, and adds a vibrant new identity to the Christchurch cityscape.

Artist biography

Neil Dawson holds a Diploma of Fine Arts (Hons) from Canterbury University and a Graduate Diploma in Sculpture from Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts. Since his earliest installation in 1979 for the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Seascape, he has gone on to compile an impressive portfolio of works held both in New Zealand and overseas.

Dawson’s career has focused on the production of large-scale and site-specific sculptures in New Zealand, Australia and Asia. He is best known for his suspended Visit the artist’s website: www.neildawson.co.nz sculptures, the first of which was Echo in 1981, installed at the Christchurch Arts Centre. In 1989, he created his first suspended sphere,Globe , for Magiciens de la Questions to ask students: Terre, an international exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Dawson went on to use the basic form of the suspended sphere on several more works, most notably Have you passed by Fanfare recently? Have you noticed this sculpture before? Ferns, installed in Wellington’s Civic Square in 1998 as one of his now five suspended Why do you think this sculpture was placed in this area? sculptures in the capital. His commission for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney What does it remind you of? resulted in Feathers and Skies, which is situated above the main entrance to Stadium What material do you think was used in this work? Australia. In 2001 his work, Chalice, an 18m-high conical structure, was installed What makes the pinwheel fans move? in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square. In 2005 and 2006 Dawson completed his first major outdoor works in Britain with the installation of Raindrops and Wellsphere in Manchester.

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Julia Morison 12 Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers, 2013

Julia Morison’s artwork for SCAPE 8, Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers, consists of 10 modular objects, reading and functioning both as trees and houses, constructed from three-metre-tall hexagonal timber frames on top of precast concrete bases. Above the timber frame, a steel planter holds growing Muehlenbeckia complexa plants and supports illuminated fiberglass rods which reach another three metres above the planter frame. The combined 10 ‘tree houses’ span nearly 20 square metres of area. Morison’s work can be explored on many levels, and creates spaces within for reflection and play. Geographically and historically, the sculptural work references the early swamps of Christchurch, which supported forests of kahikatea trees. Morison says, “I invite those experiencing Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers to reflect on the way that structures and systems manipulate the way we see things.”

Artist biography

Julia Morison has exhibited extensively within New Zealand and internationally for over three decades. She has been the recipient of many key awards, grants and residencies. Graduating first with Diploma in Graphic Design from Wellington Polytechnic School of Design at Massey University, she then gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1975.

Morison’s ongoing practice — incorporating painting, sculpture, photography and installation — is underpinned consistently by a complex symbolic system. Her vocabulary is inspired by esoteric and spiritual sources, such as Hermeticism, the Kabbalah, alchemy and memory systems. Her work has come to represent her own intellectual order through an interweaving of symbol, material and philosophy, re-interpreting or reviewing for a contemporary context. The work invites us to reflect on the ways structures guide our understading of things, with her interpretations offering a metaphor for other such systems and encouraging us to consider those systems. Visit the artist’s website: www.juliamorison.co.nz

Questions to ask students:

How many tree houses are there? What are the different parts made of? What do you think this artwork is talking about? Have you seen this artwork at night?

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Mischa Kuball 13 Solidarity Grid, 2015

Solidarity Grid is part of a larger global series of artworks by German-born artist Mischa Kuball. Kuball started Public Preposition in 2009 at the Venice Biennale, heralding a unique series of temporary and permanent interventions in public spheres around the world, most recently in Bern, Switzerland and Katowice, Poland. Kuball’s primary interest is in light and space in both public and institutional spheres. Using the medium of light – in installation and photography – he explores architectural spaces and contributes to social and political discourses.

Over a period of three years, beginning with SCAPE 7 in 2013, Kuball has instigated the installation of a single streetlamp from each of 21 cities around the globe, including Christchurch’s sister cities, gifted to Christchurch as a gesture of solidarity with the city during its recovery and rebuild process.

The cities are: Adelaide, Australia; Belgrade, Serbia; Boston, USA; Christchurch, United Kingdom; Düsseldorf, Germany; Gansu, China; Graz, Austria; Ieper, Belgium; Kurashiki, Japan; La Rochelle, France; Mexico City, Mexico; Montreal, Canada; Seattle, USA; Sendai, Japan; Singapore City, Singapore; Sofia, Bulgaria; Songpa, Korea; Sopot, Poland; St Moritz, Switzerland; Sydney, Australia, and Wuhan, China. These streetlamps have been installed along a section of Park Terrace, providing an actual as well as symbolic exploratory trail of light for pedestrians and cyclists.

Artist biography

Mischa Kuball has been working in the public sphere since 1984. For over two decades he has been working conceptually and artistically with artificial light, creating works that, beneath their coolness and academically oriented phrasing, are driven by the heart.

Kuball uses light as a medium to explore architectural space as well as social and political discourse in his installations and photographs, reflecting on a whole variety of aspects from socio-cultural structures to architectural interventions, emphasising or reinterpreting their monumental nature and context in architectural history. Public and private space merge into an indistinguishable whole in politically motivated participation projects, providing a platform for communication among the audience, the artist, the artwork and public space. Visit the artist’s website: www.mischakuball.com Since 2007, Germany-based Kuball has been a professor in the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne; an associate professor for media art at Hochschule für Gestaltung/ZKM, Karlsruhe, and since 2015 a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in Düsseldorf. Questions to ask students: In 2016 he was honoured with the German Light Award. Take a walk along Park Terrace and look for the street lamps.

Is there one that you prefer? Why? What is your interpretation of this artwork? Do you think it is relevant to Christchurch? How?

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Anton Parsons 14 Passing Time, 2011

Anton Parsons was commissioned to create Passing Time for SCAPE 6. The work was installed at Wilson Reserve at the entrance to Christchurch Ara Institute (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, CPIT) immediately before the September 2010 earthquake, but only launched formally a year later. It features twisting boxes depicting each year between 1906, the institution’s foundation year, and 2010. The work forms part of the fabric of the city, able to be walked around and through, touched and sat on, its symbolism concentrated by the surrounding damage caused by the earthquakes. Parsons notes also that “the winding form of the sculpture — placed on a street within the original 1851 grid plan commissioned by the Canterbury Association for its new settlement — is also a nod to the winding Avon River, an irregular feature of the landscape over which a street grid was placed”.

Artist biography

Anton Parsons is one of New Zealand’s leading sculptors. Graduated from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1990, Parsons’ practice has embraced a wide range of media and modes: industrial materials, readymade objects, photography and installation. His works engage physical space in profound, often unsettling ways through apparently simple means. His work is held in public, corporate and private collections throughout New Zealand.

Parsons makes his audience powerfully aware of the physical and conceptual demarcations imposed by architecture and the power that resides in social spaces. The audience is implicated in the works by virtue of having to negotiate a way around them. Public works by the artist include Invisible City in Lambton Quay, Wellington (2003); The Longest Day, located in the Q&V Building, Queen Street, Auckland (2004), and Numbers, a recent commission for the Palmerston North Public Sculpture Trust.

Questions to ask students:

Explore different ways of walking around the artwork: move fast, then slow, go underneath it, get lower and higher.

What do you think this artwork is about? Why? Can you find the year you were born among these numbers? What other ways do you think could express the passage of time?

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Regan Gentry 15 Flour Power, 2008

Regan Gentry describes his work fondly “… as if a friendly giant has walked through the garden city gathering lamp-posts like flowers and tying them into a bunch with a car tyre.”

Flour Power is an impressive artistic statement, distinctive for both its formal qualities and commentary on the changing nature of New Zealand cities. As Gentry describes, “In Canterbury, fields of crops have given way to fields of houses. Rows of wheat have been replaced by rows of street lights.”

Artist biography

Graduating from the Otago Polytechnic in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Regan Gentry has effectively bridged the gap between what it means to be an artist working in the public sector, and the public’s acceptance of that work. His work consists of a seamless integration of art and space.

A large number of Gentry’s realised work has been of a public art nature, with the major example being Green Islands, the inaugural Four Plinths commission on the fringes of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa forecourt. Other public works of note include ArrRghT, Near Nowhere, Near Impossible, which was the result of Gentry’s residency at the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, and Subject to Change, “a slice of a building left behind by developers” in Wellington.

Visit the artist’s website: www.regangentry.com

Questions to ask students:

What do you think this sculpture is made of? What does in remind you of? Why? Do you think this sculpture relates to its surroundings? How? What do you think this sculpture looks like in different times of the day?

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Phil Price 16 Nucleus, 2006

The sculpture was unveiled to the public on 29 September 2006 and gifted formally to the city at the duration of SCAPE 2006. At nine metres high Nucleus has an impressive presence on the corner of High, Manchester and Lichfield streets, and is prominent visually to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Its large structure moves with the wind to create an everchanging artwork.

“Nucleus: the positively charged centre of an atom. Christchurch was my place of study and remains the centre of my practice, so this title and the sculpture have a special significance for me. The artwork is a celebration of place. The simple singular form made of four equal parts is a reflection of Christchurch, with its well-planned and laid-out built environment. All the parts are connected and necessary for the whole to function. The plinth, with its exposed structure and beauty through function, is a celebration of Christchurch’s engineering and industrial base.” – Phil Price

Artist biography

Phil Price was born in Nelson in 1965. He graduated from the University of Canterbury Ilam School of Fine Arts in 1990. He worked initially as an artists’ technical assistant at the art school and then in a variety of positions in the art world, in education and in composite engineering. Since 2000, Price has focused on his sculptural practice, working principally on large-scale works for the outdoor environment. His work is synonymous with large-scale, wind-activated kinetic sculpture.

The unique nature of Price’s work has seen him increasingly sought after for major international public projects, including: Tree of Life, Peninsula Link, Frankston, Victoria; New Nucleus, Hamilton, Victoria; Snake, Aarhus, Denmark, Auckland International Airport and several works in Canberra. His work is held in numerous public and private collections throughout Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe.

Visit the artist’s website: www.philpricesculpture.com

Questions to ask students:

How do you think Nucleus moves? Why? What shape does it make when all its pieces come together? Would you add a song or sound to this sculpture? What would that be?

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Understanding Art 17 Junior worksheet Record what you see, what the artwork is made of, how it looks, and what colours you can see.

Artist’s name: ______

Title of artwork: ______

Elements: Describe the structure/materials/shapes. Mood/feeling: What kind of feeling do you get from the artwork?

Process: What is it made from? How do you think it has been made? Meaning or artist intention: What do you think the artist is trying to say in the work?

Form: What type of artwork is it? Does the title give any clue to the meaning of the artwork? If so, describe how.

SCAPE 10 Education Resource Understanding Art 18 Senior worksheet Record what you see, what the artwork is made of, how it looks, and what colours you can see.

Artist’s name: ______

Title of artwork: ______

Elements: Describe the structure in terms of line/density/materials/ Mood/feeling: What kind of feeling do you get from the artwork? shapes.

Process: What is it made from? How has it been made? Meaning or artist intention: What do you think the artist is trying to say in the work?

Form: What type of artwork is it? Can you classify it? What makes it that Does the title draw out any meaning from the artwork? If so, describe type of artwork over another? How do you define the term? how.

SCAPE 10 Education Resource 19 Artist and Name Opportunities for bi-cultural learning of Artwork

Julia Morrison Theme: Nature, the Kahikatea Tree as inspiration for this work Tree Houses for Swamp Dwellers Papatūānuku (Mother Earth) Investigate the story of Papatūānuku explaining the significance, in connection to the tree coming from the e arth.

When the Atua (God) Tāne Mahuta (God of forest) chose to separate his parents Papatūānuku (Earth Mother) and Ranginui (Sky Father) in the Māori creation myth he did so with the help of kahikatea. The myth tells us that in order to force his mother and father apart he lay down on his back and pushed with his strong legs straining his muscles with all his might until they were separated. His legs that reached up are the lords of the forest, the forest primeval and the first tree that Tāne created to keep his primal parents apart was kahikatea.

For further information - http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/conifers/page-3

Regan Gentry Theme: Location, Christchurch/Ōtautahi Flour Power Q. Do you know the Māori name for Christchurch? A. Ōtautahi

Naming of Ōtautahi Ōtautahi was named after a Ngāi Tahu chief Te Potiki Tautahi who settled in Port Levy in Banks Peninsula. Tautahi would make continuous voyages following the Ōtākaro (Avon river) where he would gather ducks, weka, eels and small fish. Tautahi died during one of these trips and was buried at the cemetery of St Luke’s Church vicarage on the corner of Kilmore and Manchester Streets.

For further information - http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/maori/language/exhibition/Viewer/

Mischa Kuball Theme: Light, as a symbol of hope Solidarity Grid Te Ao Mārama – World of Light Day and night were called Te Ao (light) and Te Pō (darkness). Māori linked light with peace and understanding, and darkness with conflict and confusion. The rising and setting of the sun also symbolised the cycle of birth and death.

For further information - https://www.ccc.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Environment/Water/SWPAvonCatchmentCCC.pdf SCAPE 10 Education Resource 20 Artist and Name Opportunities for bi-cultural learning of Artwork

Phil Price Theme: Movement, kinetic art related to the wind Nucleus God of Wind/Weather - Tāwhiri-mātea The weather was very important in Māori life. The seasons, the wind and the rain affected daily activities, especially growing crops and fishing. There were dozens of words to describe the weather. There were also stories to explain wind, thunder, rainbows and other natural events.

In Māori tradition, Tāwhiri-mātea was the god of the weather. His parents were Ranginui (the Sky Father) and Papatūānuku (the Earth Mother), who lay close together. To let light into the world, Tāwhiri-mātea’s brothers separated their parents. But Tāwhiri-mātea did not agree to this. To show his anger he sent out his children, the four winds, and clouds that brought rain and thunderstorms.

For further information - http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/tawhirimatea-the-weather

Neil Dawson Theme: Movement, kinetic art related to the wind Fanfare God of Wind/Weather - Tāwhiri-mātea The weather was very important in Māori life. The seasons, the wind and the rain affected daily activities, especially growing crops and fishing. There were dozens of words to describe the weather. There were also stories to explain wind, thunder, rainbows and other natural events.

Theme: Gateway into Christchurch/Ōtautahi Gateway – Waharoa

For further information - http://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/ti-kouka-whenua/otakaro

SCAPE 10 Education Resource 21 Artist and Name Opportunities for bi-cultural learning of Artwork

Antony Gormley STAY Theme: Understanding the significance and naming of the Avon River Ōtākaro & Ōtautahi

The Avon River Ōtākaro It was highly regarded as a mahinga kai by Waitaha, Ngāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu. The Waitaha pā of Puari once nestled on its banks. In later years, Tautahi (the chief after whom our city takes its name) made kai gathering forays down Ōtākaro from Koukourarata on Horomaka (Banks Peninsula) to take advantage of the abundant bounty offered up by its waters. Pātiki (flounder) were speared, eels (tuna), ducks, whitebait (inaka) and native trout were also caught. Ōtākaro, meaning the place of a game, is so named after the children who played on the river’s banks as the food gathering work was being done.

For further information - http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/te-ao-marama-the-natural-world

Ngā Wai Whakatipu: Ōtākaro/Avon River – recognition of the historical significance of the river as a resource, and a link between past, present and future generations.

For further information - http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/tawhirimatea-the-weather

Whakaorangi Wai Ōtautahi – the importance of bringing life and health to the waters of wider Christchurch through improved water quality, protection and enhancement of springs and waterways, especially through treatment and management of storm water. Whakakahu Ōtākaro – supporting and enhancing the cultural health of the river, water quality and native bird habitat through supplementing existing exotic plantings with riparian and embankment native plantings. Tūtohu Tangata Whenua – acknowledging the place of Ngāi Tahu in the city through native planting, areas of mahinga kai and provision of enriched habitat for native birds. State of the Takiwā (2007, 2012) identified the catchment of the Te Ihutai/Estuary of the Ōtākaro/Avon and Ōpawaho/ Heathcote Rivers “to be in a state of poor to very poor cultural health ”. Sites of settlement or mahinga kai significance to Ngāi Tahu include:

Hereora (at the head of the Avon, near the airport) Te Warokuri (within an old gully in Papanui) Wairārapa (along the northern tributary) Motu-iti (near Bryndwr) Ōhikahuruhuru (near a previous swamp in upper Fendalton) Ō-Rakipāoa (along Southern tributary) Pūtarikamotu (Riccarton Bush) Waikākāriki (Horseshoe Lake) Waipapa (Little Hagley Park) Ōruapaeroa (Travis Wetland) Ōtautahi; Puari Pā (Victoria/Market Square) Te Ihutai (Estuary)

SCAPE 10 Education Resource 22 SCAPE RAMS Form

Teachers should note this document was developed to Hazard Prevention and Action – assist in planning a visit to the SCAPE Public Art Season Identification minimisation if hazard occurs 2017. SCAPE Public Art cannot be responsible for the risk assessment for you or your students. Teachers must be Cuts, bruising, falls Brief students on sensible For minor injuries: responsible for assessing the potential risks and hazards behaviour at the beginning associated with their visit. Please refer to the information of the programme and A first-aid kit will be provided below for more information. Contact SCAPE ensure students walk available from the SCAPE Public Art Community Engagement Manager, Clare Newton, sensibly during programme. educators. if you have any questions regarding risk assessment in Teachers can also reinforce Current first-aid certificate this message during the is held by SCAPE educators. preparation for your visit. walk, and in preparation at For major injuries phone school. 111. Teachers should carry mobile phones for emergency Josie Whelan purposes. Education & Community Engagement Manager

SCAPE Public Art Phone: 03 365 7994 Email: [email protected] Stairs Rails available for stairs. For minor injuries: Care should be taken to avoid slips and trips by A first-aid kit will be ensuring students walk at available from the SCAPE The purpose of risk assessment: normal pace and watch educators. where they are going. Current first-aid certificate is held by SCAPE educators. To identify all possible hazards For major injuries phone To identify measures that will prevent and/or minimise all 111. Teachers should carry possible hazards mobile phones for emergency To identify the action that will control and minimise the purposes. extent of injury in the event of an emergency

SCAPE 10 Education Resource 23 SCAPE RAMS Form

Hazard Identification Prevention and minimisation Action – if hazard occurs

Road accident A map of the SCAPE Public Art Walkway is available for teachers to consider For minor injuries: roads that will need to be crossed, footpaths and pedestrian malls before their visit. The map indicates which side of the road you will need to walk along A first-aid kit will be available from the SCAPE educators. and where to cross in order to best view the artworks. Teachers are solely Current first-aid certificate is held by SCAPE educators. responsible for students and need to ensure that a minimum adult-to-student For major injuries phone 111. Teachers should carry mobile ratio of 1:6 is maintained at all times for primary school-aged students. This phones for emergency purposes. ratio is required by SCAPE Public Art.

Student-specific ailments The class teacher is responsible for the specific medical needs of students.

Sculptures – protruding Students should be advised in advance by teachers of the diverse nature of the SCAPE staff will advise the students to take care and will and/or sharp objects, sculptures and behave accordingly. allow touching of the outdoor public artworks only under adult moving parts, hollow or supervision. unsupportive materials

Weather conditions: sun, Teachers are responsible for ensuring students are wearing appropriate It is advisable for teachers and/or students to carry water with wind and rain clothing for their excursion: sun hats, raincoats, sunblock, sensible shoes etc. them on hot days. The guided walks will operate in fine weather only. If heavy rain occurs the SCAPE Community Engagement Manager will terminate the guided walk, or cancel and contact the school with as much notice as possible.

Getting lost from the group There will be members of the team assisting groups as guided along the The class teacher is responsible for the overall safety of all or exposure to stranger SCAPE Public Art Walkway. Ensure the ratio of 1:6 is clear to visiting teachers students. danger and that an adult is assigned to student groups. Students should be advised to stay close to the class group and supervisors. Teachers should keep students Notify teacher and school of incident in sight, and reinforce guides’ requirements to meet up after short distances Contact police: SCAPE staff will carry mobile phones for walked (eg at particular sculptures or landmarks). emergency purposes

Child supervision SCAPE educators and staff do not provide supervision. The class teacher SCAPE educators will meet and greet school groups and is responsible for ensuring a supervision ratio of 1:6 for primary students. provide briefing of activities and expectations, including safety All class teachers should bring a current register when visiting and it is the rules. The SCAPE educators will facilitate all learning. responsibility of the teacher to have this accessible at all times. The sculptures are safely accessible and without risk to health, however some are located near and beside busy roads or the river. Staff will indicate the best place for group viewing of sculptures. If undertaking a self-guided tour it is recommended that teachers walk the SCAPE Public Art Walkway before taking their students to consider best places for group viewing of the sculptures and public artworks. SCAPE 10 Education Resource