Green Islands
Originally installed on 6 December 2007 as part of the Wellington Sculpture Trust's Four Plinths Project, this sculpture moved to a permanent home in the Botanic Garden in January 2010.
Gentry has fabricated his work out of number 8 wire, creating replica trees and other flora commonly planted by Wellington City Council around Wellington. The wire renditions of trees and plants that make up Green Islands are not green. They have no roots, they don’t drop leaves. They stand on plinths - structures designed to elevate and separate sculptures from their surrounding context. And yet while these structures share little with their living counterparts, they blend into the steel-grey of the concrete surroundings. We also become aware of their underlying form as they sit atop the plinths in skeletal ghostly splendour in this concrete arena.
Gentry excels in making the most out of recycled materials, often in a witty way. Apart from its obvious botanical interpretation, this work’s title, Green Islands, also refers to the Dunedin suburb that is home to the tip and dump shop – a hunting ground for materials Gentry made good use of in his years at Otago Polytechnic art school.
(Updated January 2010)
