Silent People

1991

Chris Booth

Decommissioned

Type

  • Sculpture

Medium

  • Stone
  • Steel

Dimensions

  • 5 columns: 1 @ H2020 x W460 x D450mm; 1 @ H2080 x W560 x D410mm; 1 @ H2040 x W500 x D410mm; 1 @ H2030 x W420 x D470mm; 1 @ H2100 x W520 x D380mm

Chris Booth, ‘Silent People’ (1991), Te Ngākau Civic Square, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Image: Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand, 2021

2023–Current

Decommissioned

1991–2023

In the raised garden bed where Te Matapihi Central Library faces onto Te Ngākau Civic Square, CDB, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Artists

Description

This work was commissioned by they Wellington City Council Civic Square Project in 1991 as part of the redevelopment led by Athfield Architects.

The work is an installation of 5 stacks of Taranaki andesite boulders threaded onto galvanised steel rods to form columns. Ranging between 2.02 and 2.1m, the stack diameter tapers either upward or downward. The title suggests we are to interpret these stacks as 'people,' though if so they are of ethereal proportions. The installation see the stacks interspersed with Tī Kōuka (Cabbage Trees) with similarly proportioned and coloured trunks.

"Silent People" was decommissioned in 2023, and the rocks returned to Taranaki by the artist.

See also: