Boom Boom was erected in Riverside Park on Wednesday. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

The funds have been raised, work commissioned, and public debate aired. Now, seven-metre-high sculpture Boom Boom is installed at Riverside Park.

By Chris Marshall

Taupō Sculpture Trust chair Chris Martin is philosophical about the views so far on Gregor Kregar’s design of a large rock made of corten steel upon which will sit a dinosaur of polished, marine grade stainless steel.

“There are always going to be people who like some (sculptures), and not like others, and that would be the same even on the trust. You go to a gallery, you look on the wall and you think ‘I like that painting’, ‘I don’t like that one’, ‘Ooh I love that one’.”
Art did not resonate with everyone all at the same time, he said.

“Even famous artists have their famous periods or iconic paintings that take on a life of their own.”
Martin and trust deputy chair Christine Robb see Boom Boom’s arrival, with an unveiling planned for May 15, as a highly visible kick start to the trust’s sculpture trail – with 21 pieces planned for the park over the next decade.

“That's what we're really selling. It's a 10-year plan.
“To get a thing started I think you need something that's not going to have people look and go ‘oh well, that's nice’. You need something that’s going to make a statement. It will definitely get people talking, we know that.”

Both see the trail as bigger than Boom Boom and another string to Taupō’s bow of attractions –one that will encourage more public use of the green space next to the Waikato River.

And now with the kinetic Flip by Phil Price relocated from the former Colonel Roberts Reserve, Boom Boom’s imminent arrival and another sculpture coming, they felt the trail was underway.

The trust’s commissioning of a dozen or so sculptures already around town was it fighting for recognition for the arts, said Robb.

“We’ve always been the little brother of big sporting entities in a sense. But for us it is equally as important.”
Martin said he loves sport too, but people like to be part of a town that is not just one dimensional.

The trustees’ strong connection with art, said Robb, meant they saw it as “incredibly important for the cultural heart of the town.

“It’s good for physical health, mental health… there are so many benefits to public sculpture.”

But it was also an attraction for tourists, Martin says.

“You travel anywhere overseas and sculpture trails and sculpture at galleries is hugely popular these days. Hopefully some of these things will be Instagram-able and go around the world.”
The pair were also enthusiastic about ideas for future commissions – iwi stories being represented, school projects like Tessa Ralfe’s Butterfly or even a people’s choice following a temporary exhibition by various sculptors.

Taupō Sculpture Trust chair Chris Martin and deputy chair Christine Robb next to the kinetic sculpture Flip in Riverside Park.

“So, the connection with the community is big as well as getting some iconically significant sculptures,” Robb says.

And they felt Boom Boom’s position near the park’s three advertising banners close to Wairakei Drive was ‘a great spot’.

“It's going to shine like it's on fire when the sun goes down and comes up,” Martin says.
“It’s a really classy bit of art, it’s not a joke, it is art and it’s going to be absolutely stunning,” Robb says.

Though they are probably wanting to be less stunned in organising future commissions – a major Boom Boom sponsor dropped out when his circumstances changed during the Covid pandemic, necessitating a rejig and, for a time, delays such as choosing a site had them wondering whether it would ever happen.

“But there's no doubt the name Boom Boom has caught on,” Martin says.

Background

In February last year councillors Anna Park and Sandra Greenslade voted against the siting of Boom Boom quoting cost of living pressures and financial constraints. Under a 2020 memorandum of understanding, the trust chooses artworks for the trail, while the council approves their location.

A sum of $100,000 was approved by the council in 2018 and reconfirmed in its Long-term Plan budget in 2021 for the trust and it was a recipient of an accelerator fund grant this year.

Future commissions, which become council assets, will be fully funded by the trust.