In the early 1990's I was involved in the design and building of many commercially oriented public sculptures and 3D signs.
This project, a ferro cement, generic elephant, was built for the Chang Tong Thai Restaurant, now known as the Red Elephant.
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The Golden Elephant of Khyber Pass, Auckland, New Zealand with the company ute in the foreground. Photo taken by me in 1991. |
Here are a few surviving images of the building process.
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The armature beginning to reveal the shape of the elephant in 3 D. |
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Another perspective of the steel armature in the workshop. |
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Armature with most of its wire netting applied, those are my boys, Robert and Arien. |
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A trunk down perspective of the plastering process. |
I developed a very successful plaster mixture by blending Portland cement with equal parts of sand and macerated news paper which was power mixed with a paddle and a drill. It clung to the two layers of mesh extremely well.
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What the paster application looked like from inside. |
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A young Rachel Hunter looks on. |
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My son Arien as Mahout |
The detail was added as a second plaster layer using a variety of metal shapes bent out of steel sheet.
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Swinging the sculpture from the low loader into position outside the restaurant in Khyber Pass, Auckland NZ. It weighed 1.5 tonnes. |
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My daughter Rebekka loved the excitement of Dad's job. |
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In position, my children from left to right, Robert, Rebekka, Arien in his favourite position. |
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This is my son Robert with the red elephant in 2012 |
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Auckland wildlife |
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More Auckland wildlife |