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Art and Nature Intertwined:<br />
Tai Tapu<br />
Sculpture<br />
Garden<br />
In thirteen years, this place has been transformed from a onehectare<br />
pony paddock to an artfully created strolling garden of<br />
over 8000 native trees, shrubs, flaxes and grasses.<br />
Owners Peter Joyce and Annabel Menzies-Joyce are restoring<br />
Banks Peninsula’s natural landscape of 1000 years ago,<br />
recreating a podocarp forest of tōtara, mataī and kahikatea,<br />
with many other rare and threatened plants native to<br />
Canterbury. There are also rimu and beech groves, Annabel’s<br />
favourite trees.<br />
That project would be enough for most people, but a year in,<br />
Peter and Annabel decided to incorporate sculptures. Soon<br />
Melissa Reimer was brought in as Curator, and the sculpture<br />
aspect began in earnest.<br />
There are now 30+ permanent outdoor installations, with<br />
around 100 additional works for sale during the annual<br />
exhibition. The annual commissioning process and competition<br />
set out to support contemporary NZ sculpture practice,<br />
enabling artists by providing focus, funds and an outlet.<br />
The artists therefore usually make works directly for this garden,<br />
hence the intertwining. Many of the pieces are site specific.<br />
Many are designed to interact with the sun, wind, rain and sky.<br />
Many reference environmental concerns – the survival of native<br />
birds, the race towards climate disaster, the impermanence and<br />
Alison Erickson, A room of one’s own (<strong>2023</strong>)<br />
vulnerability of our greatest natural assets.<br />
The variety of the artworks is stunning, in size and material.<br />
They range from architectural to figurative, from heavy and<br />
grounded to soaring and light. Some change year-on-year as<br />
they weather in place.<br />
The care taken by the team to place each piece in a setting<br />
perfect for the piece’s style, texture, tone and impact, is<br />
inspirational and moving.<br />
Melissa explains: “We want people to interact with the<br />
sculpture and space and for that be a deeply personal<br />
experience. People stroll and come across sculptures tucked<br />
away in groves and gracing green avenues. We all see different<br />
things when we’re here.”<br />
The Annual Autumn Exhibition is always the first three<br />
weekends in March, 10-4pm, and $20. The garden is pram and<br />
wheelchair friendly, and picnickers are welcome. The garden<br />
also opens at other times, and by appointment. Peter will show<br />
you round and enthuse you with his passion for planting.<br />
The vision of what is being created here is extraordinary. See<br />
you there next Autumn!<br />
taitapusculpturegarden.co.nz / 199 Cossars Road, RD 2 / 03 329<br />
6662 / taitapusculpturegarden@gmail.com<br />
Peter & Alfie, with Bing Dawe’s<br />
Towards repair – Gorse as a nursery –<br />
Composition with gorse, NZ beech and<br />
tuna, from Hinewai (2022)<br />
Making your great outdoors greater<br />
DRY<br />
$450 plus<br />
gst<br />
10m 3 delivered<br />
conditions apply<br />
Vege<br />
mix<br />
$335 incl<br />
gst<br />
3m 3 delivered<br />
conditions apply<br />
SCReeNeD<br />
TOPSOiL<br />
Free<br />
delivery<br />
Check out our all new website www.mainscapegardensupplies.co.nz<br />
Contact Us<br />
1543 Springs Road, Lincoln 021 241 7908 sales@mainscape.co.nz<br />
Mon - Fri 8:00am - 5:00pm Sat 8:00am - 3:00pm
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