Monday, April 15, 2013

The Red elephant of Khyber Pass, Auckland New Zealand

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.




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.
The armature beginning to reveal the shape of the elephant in 3 D.

Another perspective of the steel armature in the workshop.

Armature with most of its wire netting applied, those are my boys, Robert and Arien.

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.
What the paster application looked like from inside.

A young Rachel Hunter looks on.

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.
Swinging the sculpture from the low loader into position outside the restaurant in Khyber Pass, Auckland NZ. It weighed 1.5 tonnes.

My daughter Rebekka loved the excitement of Dad's job.

In position, my children from left to right, Robert, Rebekka, Arien in his favourite position.
This is my son Robert with the red elephant in 2012
Auckland wildlife

More Auckland wildlife

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