Otago Sculpture Trust

Peter Nicholls   2009

Introduction:

In June 2008 Peter Nicholls was selected by the Olympic Park Trust, New Lynn, West Auckland, to design a site-specific sculpture for a public park on the boundary of Auckland City and Waitakere City. The site lies only 50 metres from the rail corridor between east and west Auckland and, until recently, featured an historic 19^th-century trestle bridge. Upgrading the rail service in Auckland involved the demolition of this bridge, after much protest, and it was replaced by two concrete structures. The brief he set myself was to evoke a 'conceptual memory ' of the old bridge, which happened to span the meeting of two streams with considerable historical significance to the area and, if possible, to reuse some of the Australian hardwood from the original bridge.

History:

The site is rich in references to the early Maori and European history of the area. Portage Road, which defines the western boundary of this public park, refers to the portage of waka across the Waituarangi  Stream, as the Avondale-New Lynn area is the shortest point between the Manukau and the Waitemata Harbours. Maori from the Manukau would use this waterway to transport and sell their crops and other wares to Maori from the northern harbour. The sculpture site is at the junction of the Waituarangi  Stream with the Whau Stream, which flows north into the Whau River estuary and on into the Waitemata. The sculpture is also close to a waka building site. Later, European traders used river scows to transport timbers through mangrove swamps further north. In the 1960s a velodrome and running track built on this site was used by Olympic runners Peter Snell, Murray Halberg and John Walker.

Concept:

Three fan-trestle structures (dark forest green) are employed as uplifting elements in a celebratory gesture in which the meeting of the two streams (arterial red) appears as if lofted up into the air. Set at a height of 5 metres, the deeply fissured grain of the timbers refers to the flow of water and the horizontal thrust of journeying waka.  Cantilevered beams emphasise this dynamic interplay of forces.

This project was made possible by the generous support  of the Olympic Park Trust, especially Councillor Ross Clow, and I am also grateful to project manager Dario De Biasio, engineer Nick Knowles, designer-builder Peter Lewis and onsite builder Mark Harding.

Peter Nicholls  12/09/09