NZ Visual Diary - entry 183

Karangahape Rocks (aka Karangahape Road Fountain)

Installed (1969) in Pigeon Park at the corner of Karangahape Road and Symonds Street, the bronze sculpture is the creation of revered New Zealand artist Greer Twist. It was his first public commission.

The sculpture features two bathers basking in the sun while perched on a rocky promontory.

The uplifted head of the thin bather on the right invites the passerby to revel in her own memory of sunbathing, the childlike joy one feels when enveloped in radiant warmth. There is added poignancy to the scene of two people enjoying a quiet time in the warmth of the sun when that passerby lifts her head beyond the view of Pigeon Park only to see the outline of the nearby Symonds Street Cemetery.

Lost in a moment that suspends all notation of time, so too the siren’s call from the cemetery is rendered mute, if only for a long, languid pause.

In 2021 Twist was cited as holding the distinction of being the longest continually producing sculptor in New Zealand. He was made a New Zealander Order of Merit (ONZM) for Sculpture in the Queen's Birthday Honours (2002).¹

1. The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi website < https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/greer-twiss >