The public debate about Palmerston North’s massive Ghost Tower sculpture has already begun, but the city’s mayor says the murmurings and the whiff of controversy is part of what the project is all about.
At the official opening of the Louise Purvis-made, 9.5-metre tall, stainless steel tower yesterday, Jono Naylor told a crowd of about 70 that controversy was cool.
“We’re making talking points,” he said. “I like that there are people out there that say this is a waste of money, that tell us we need to be focusing on fixing the pot holes.
“It’s a great debate for the community to have.”
The ghostly sculpture is lit up from underneath at night and includes a seat at the bottom. It stands on shiny poles, with a mesh work of a building and a tower on top made from 3.5 kilometres of wire.
The work was partly inspired by the Whareti tower that stands as a landmark on the Tararua Range. It also borrows aspects from the city’s two clock towers and other examples of Palmerston North’s architecture. It will appear to move in and out of focus, reflecting the trees through the seasons, and the buildings around it.
“You have to see it at night,” Naylor said.
“The lights shimmer in the stainless steel.”
The Public Sculpture Trust’s Juune Bendall said the Ghost Tower showed art and industry could be the same thing.
The $100,000 project has been paid for by the trust and the city council and is the eighth of 10 to be built as part of a 10-year project.
“It is an absolutely beautiful, delicate, intricate, complex structure,” Bendall said.
Purvis told the crowd a story about welding the Ghost Tower together in Auckland. While she was putting it together a child walked in and asked her why she was making a rocketship.
“That’s the fantastic thing,” Purvis said. “What you see with your eyes is not what matters, it’s what your imagination allows you to see.”
With help from Steel Pencil, Steelfort was able to put together the base in Palmerston North and for that reason it was chief executive John McOviney who cut the ceremonial ribbon as hundreds of pigeons were released into the sky.
“Looking at the welding, if you want a job sometime, you are welcome,” McOviney told Purvis.
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