Otago Sculpture Trust

In Site Library - Greater Dunedin: Kinetic Wind Sculpture (Civic Plaza) (1981)

Insite

Sculpture....... Library Plaza......................... Sculptor, Derek Ball

The association of public art with a new building development is a time-honoured practice. Sculpture and painting soften the harsh angles of a bare building and bring a human scale to a public space. Derek Ball's colourful sculpture in the plaza between the library buildings and the offices of the Dunedin City Council was commissioned by the Dunedin company of Arthur Barnett to coincide with the opening of the new library building in 1981. Such a gift serves as an expression of gratitude from the company for the continued support of its customers and serves to reinforce their presence as an important trader in the city.

Derek Ball had come to Dunedin in 1968 as the Frances Hodgkins Fellow. Following that he travelled to the United States where he studied for a Master of Fine Art at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1976 he returned to Dunedin to take up a teaching position. He retired in 2002 as Head of Sculpture at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art and moved to Nelson Province where he now has a studio and gallery at his home in Stoke. Ball has based his practice around an innovative use of non-traditional materials. He has made motorised and wind-driven sculpture and worked with resin and perspex. He was among the artists commissioned by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery society to contribute a work to the special collection formed to commemorate 150 years of European settlement in Otago.

The library plaza sculpture was made with some technical assistance from the city's engineers. The artist first made a small model and then a full-size working model before creating the final work. The full size model can be seen on Nairn Street in Kaikorai outside the preschool which his wife used to run. One of Ball's enduring interests as an artist has been the interface between technology and natural forces. The plaza sculpture has a stainless steel pole sand tubes supporting three partly coloured aluminium geometrical forms. Because of their different sizes and alignment these sails respond differently to any wind rotating in differing directions and at different speeds. During construction Ball was asked to make the bottom sail heavier in case people threw stones at it. Consequently it is the slowest to respond to the wind.

In constructing the work Ball used a slippery material called "Thordon" which is a long life, low friction, non-metallic polymer alloy developed for use in industrial bearings. Remarkably this material has continued to function since it was installed without wearing out. In fact, although the sculpture is in need of a clean and perhaps repainting it is functioning very smoothly after twenty odd years.

Richard Dingwall

1 July, 2004

Text Copyright Richard Dingwall