Ten Ton sculpture for Cable StreetWellington artist Cathryn Monro was commissioned to install this very large steel sculpture named Per Capita on the corner of Cable St and Tory St, outside the Museum Hotel.
The work consists of four gigantic portraits, up to four meters high. Two pieces are shaped as portraits in profile, and two have the profiles cut out from a square – i.e. two are in positive form and two in negative space - evoking, in the artist's words, “a visual conversation about the complexity of New Zealand's cultural identity.”
Wellington Sculpture Trust Chairman Neil Plimmer says the work is highly creative and quite different from any others the Trust has commissioned. “It is our first in weathering steel, which turns into a soft, rusty red colour over time. But more important, it is a work by an outstanding young artist which meets the needs of a tough and exposed site.
“Per Capita will be an intriguing work to walk through and contemplate, and will be visually catching for passing traffic.''
Commissioning the work was made possible by a generous donation of $100,000 from Museum Hotel owner and former City Councillor Chris Parkin. “The Trust and the city warmly thank Chris Parkin for this gift. Per Capita will enhance the whole area, which is rapidly being redeveloped and warrants the placement of a major piece of public art,” Mr Plimmer said.
The profiles are based on actual portraits of people who are connected through genealogy, “But” says artist Cathryn Monro, “the specific history of these people is not the point of the work. The portraits signify diversity in family histories throughout New Zealand and foremost is the notion that personal history is paramount in the formation of a national one.”
Passersby can expect to see Per Capita installed by the end of the year in its initial placement. Final positioning of the work will reflect changes in the site once a glass-fronted restaurant is built on the corner. One of the huge heads will be relocated to bisect the glass in a dynamic engagement between architecture and sculpture.
Per Capita – Cathryn Monro
Per Capita means “for each head of population”. The composition of the work is very simple; it’s a 4 piece puzzle. Yet the pieces don’t fit together. So it’s not simple anymore. An obvious sense of fitting and belonging is immediately confounded.
As a mother of children born in this century who have both Maori and Pakeha ancestry I am acutely conscious of a need to increase the pathways of conversation between these two core aspects of our world. Per Capita seeks to open up the question of what it means to be a New Zealander and to publicize the importance of that conversation.
Each of these profiles is a composite portrait based on people from the diverse whakapapa of my children. Who are they in the cultural context of this country and how will they see themselves as belonging, or not?
The specific history of these people is not the point of the work. Rather they are signifiers of the varied histories of the individuals who make up New Zealand’s population. Per Capita presents personal history as paramount in the formation of a national one. In this way I suppose, Per Capita is a national family portrait.
