Presented to the city in 1998 as a joint commission by the Wellington Sculpture Trust, the NZ International Festival of the Arts and the City Gallery. Made possible with the generous support of ANZ Banking Group, Creative NZ, Credit Suisse First Boston, Telecom NZ Ltd, Tower Financial Services Group Ltd, Saatchi & Saatchi, Scollay Holdings and Wellington City Council.
"When I started work on Ferns I saw Ian Athfield's nikau palms as major markers of the Square. What I've aimed for is a sort of delicate intricacy that can float over the top of the palms so the two elements can work with each other.
"What I wanted to do with my sphere was to extend Athfield's poetry by adding variety in the form of five different ferns because, of course, the basic form of the nikau is overlapping ferns."
Neil Dawson
