Style: November 01, 2019

38 STYLE | art
ART FOR CLIMATE’S SAKE
Views on climate change are presented in thought-provoking ways and means thanks
to the sculptors participating at this year’s Sculpture on the Peninsula.
Words Ady Shannon
Talk of climate change is big news right now; while
Greta Thunberg is polarising heads of state at the
United Nations and world leaders are struggling to
implement policies to achieve lower carbon emission
targets, closer to home artists selected to participate in
the South Island’s largest sculpture exhibition are using
creative flair to make a climate statement.
Leah Fraser Henderson
WHEN THE RIVERS RUN DRY
Leah Fraser Henderson moved from Sydney to
Christchurch 25 years ago to enjoy the great outdoors.
She considers the changes to our environment and
degradation to our water and waterways since her
arrival “shocking”.
Her large-scale circular sculpture represents braided
waterways and the multi-layered complex problems
surrounding the state of our rivers.
“The shadows that it creates are the memories of the
people who can recall what the rivers once looked like.
Ignoring what is going on at the deeper levels won’t fix
it for our children’s futures. We take too much water
out of the ground for intensive dairy farming. How can
we imagine that is not affecting the water that is left?
We have to add chlorine to make it safe to drink!
“Drive around Canterbury and look at all the bridges
spanning stones. Rivers are disappearing in our lifetimes.
We will all be left with nothing but empty channels that
were carved out by our rivers, once teeming with life.”
When The Rivers Run Dry in process.
Hannah Kidd
THE WATCHMEN
On a lush green paddock on Sculpture on the Peninsula’s
Loudon Farm location three tall tin sentinels look out over
the rural landscape. The Watchmen are Hannah Kidd’s latest
works and with each character standing between three and
five metres tall, their presence is imposing and impressive. It
is the first time Hannah has completed and installed her work
well ahead of schedule. “Usually I am struggling to finish but I
wanted these guys to feel grounded, like historic people who
have been watching over the land for a long time.”
The inspiration for one recycled grain silo and two diesel
tanks to take on the features of a solemn watcher came from
the Easter Island towering stone statues known as moai. The
island’s once thriving and industrious culture was destroyed
by deforestation and Hannah has used this as an analogy for
global warming and what can happen when “you gobble up
resources and don’t protect a way of life”.
“The Watchmen are positive icons, solemn thinkers,
pondering on the environment and the fact they are no longer
useful given the scale on which we are now producing.”