Otago now has a guardian looking after its people and environment.
A 3m-high sculpture called Kuri/Dog took up residence in Magnet St, by the Otago Yacht Club, last week.
Sculptor Stephen Mulqueen said the sculpture was designed to look up towards the harbour entrance as a cultural guardian looking after Dunedin and surrounds.
The macrocarpa sculpture is based on the Maori word for dog, "kuri'', and on the shape of a railway spike nail, which was called a "dog'' by railway workers.
"It works on a number of levels, really,'' Mulqueen said this week.
"A lot of my recent work has been about translating place names and making objects around those landscape features. The dog looks towards Wellers Rock, which was known as Te Umu Kuri before European settlement. It's on wheels, so it also looks like it's on a journey; almost like a children's trolley.''
The sculpture is also a tribute to Otago rail history and the generations of workers who built and maintained the line, Mulqueen said.
"The Dunedin to Port Chalmers railway is one of the oldest in the country.''
The $40,000 project was commissioned by the Dunedin City Council last year under the Art in Public Spaces scheme and is the first sculpture to be completed since the council reinstated a budget for public works of art in 2006.
Dunedin City Council community arts adviser Cara Paterson said a formal welcoming ceremony would be held for the sculpture, either at the end of this month or early next month.
"There's still quite a bit of work to be done on the site and weatherproofing the materials yet,'' she said.
