Off the Top of My Head

By Paul Murray

“Ogni blocco di pietra ha una statua dentro di sé ed è compito dello scultore scoprirla.”

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

Michaelangelo

The Kawatiri Sculpture Symposium was a hive of activity on Wednesday afternoon as the sculptors worked feverishly to complete their works ahead of the Friday afternoon deadline.

Talented sculptors from across New Zealand and one from France arrived in Westport two weeks ago to begin work on shaping amorphous blocks of marble, limestone and wood into artworks of incredible beauty.

The public is invited to visit the venue at 8A Rintoul Street, Westport at 3-5:00 p.m. daily to watch the sculptors at work and to attend an unveileing ceremony on Friday May 20 from 6-8:00 p.m.

Many of the works from the symposium will be placed at strategic locations throughout the Buller region to artistically enhance our beautiful environment and urban landscape.

If you are in the region of Westport the week, please stop by and check out the action at the Kawatiri Sculpture Symposium, or attend the presentation of the completed works on Friday.

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Buller Arts Development in association with the Buller Arts and Recreation Trust and Tai Poutini Polytechnic is hosting the 10-day sculpture symposium in Westport between 9th – 20th May 2016.

The symposium has been developed to assist in the cultural rejuvenation of Westport and the wider Buller region. Arts have been identified internationally as a major contributer to creating a healthy and vibrant community. The impact of which has flow-on effects to regional economic development through providing a positive cultural atmosphere, attracting an educated workforce, tourism and business / industry investment.

In the last 2-3 years Buller has been hit hard with a massive economic downturn, with large redundancies in mining, low dairy prices and the up coming closure of Holcim cement works. This injection of public art is critical in the cultural and economic transformation of the Buller area, enhancing our urban landscapes to take advantage of the increasing tourism industry and providing a positive environment for residents.

The Kawatiri Sculpture Symposium is based around providing Tai Poutini Polytech – Hard Stone and Jade carving students an opportunity to participate in a real world scuplture symposium. These certificate and diploma students will work alongside over half a dozen established and local sculptors. Working over a 10 day period to create limestone, hardstone and wooden large scale sculptures, we expect that this will result in at least 12 large sculptures for placement throughout the Westport and wider Buller area.