North Otago artist Matt King’s life-sized found-metal Haast’s eagle sculpture is nearly ready for installation at the Brewery Hole, a sunken limestone cavern, in Duntroon.
When it is installed 3m above the life-size, scrap-metal moa he created a few years ago, the extinct bird of prey, swooping down on its quarry, will be a tribute both to the nearby Nicol’s Blacksmith Shop and the megafauna that once lived in the South Island.
"I just love that you don’t need to make it up when it comes to New Zealand flora and fauna — it’s kind of out there anyway," Mr King said.
"You look at the moa and the adzebills and these giant guys. It’s amazing already."
Commissioned by the Nicol’s Blacksmith Historic Trust, the seemingly gravity defying "massive" sculpture is an assemblage of parts found and donated from around the district.
"It almost gets a mind of its own. You can see it’s not symmetrical for a start, and it’s got a bit of an angle of rake on it, which I just had to run with, due to the asymmetry of the mould boards for the hips. That threw the legs out. And in turn it’s worked its way right through to the wings to give it this, if you like, movement," Mr King said.
"Coming from a woodworking background, I just love the ease of stitching things together with the welder. It’s lovely. And you get all these beautiful objects, it’s so nice to be able to put them in a setting where they can still be appreciated even though they have outlived their ‘usefulness’ as it were. Because they are beautiful; they’re well made; it [the sculpture] will last."
The bird’s 3m wingspan, including 16 scythe blades, would reach 4.8m above the ground once installed on a galvanised pole, donated by Network Waitaki, at the site.
Mr King said he still needed to find a structural engineer to complete drawings for a discretionary exemption from a consent from the Waitaki District Council.
