Experience larger-than-life public artworks from some of New Zealand’s top artists on the Didsbury Art Trail. This approximately 5km walk winds its way along picturesque coastline and through parks and beautiful streetscapes, taking in unique heritage sites and urban design features along the way. Download the Didsbury Art Trail map here.
Location: Ferry Wharf, The Landing
Artist: Virginia King
Materials: Stainless Steel
The work was conceived as a symbolic eel-trap (hinaki) but also suggests the form of a female figure or a classical vessel. Historically the tidal flats were abundant breeding grounds for eels, fish and shellfish. The sculpture passes through a circular hole in the wharf and reveals views of water below. Two engraved rings, like ripples in the water, encircle Hinaki. The text is from the poem Eel - by Fiona Farrell. In sunlight the sculpture casts strong linear shadows. In mist and sea fog, the form becomes a looming figure.
Location: Launch Road
Artist: Louise Purvis
Materials: Steel, red scoria
Estuarine, which is inspired by Hobsonville Point's waterways, winds its way over and around a gabion retaining wall. The work is made of tubular baskets filled with scoria then attached to the wall. Purvis says she was thinking about the view Audrey Mills would have had of Hobsonville's sinuous waterways from the cockpit of her husband's Gipsy Moth as she leaned out to take aerial photos in the 1920s. Doug and Audrey ran Auckland's first aerial photography business from the Hobsonville airfield.
Location: Harrier Point
Artist: Philipp Meier
Materials: Corten Steel
In 2010 Philipp Meier, the creator of the 10 metre high pied shag sculpture, Te Kanohi o Te Manu, also brought to life the ‘forest floor’ playground at Hobsonville Point Park. That sculptural playground and Te Kanohi o Te Manu have two things in common – New Zealand native flora and fauna, and a distinctive playfulness around scale. The upscaled objects are fascinating for adults too – there’s a magical, almost primal shift in perception around things which are bigger than they ought to be.
Bullet holes scattered across the stage backdrop hint at the history of this repurposed rifle range. This heritage site served as a machine gun range for Air Force personnel, the SAS, Navy and the Diplomatic Protection Squad. The range, which was completed in 1940, was the place where many New Zealand men came to learn about weapons and practice shooting at cardboard targets. The Rifle Range has been restored and now has a second life as an amphitheatre for performances and community events.
Location: Corner de Havilland and Wallace Roads
Artist: Leon van den Eijkel
Materials: Steel, paint
Artist Leon van den Eijkel grew up in Holland. He recalls a simple windmill on a stick from the fairground and the run home through cobbled streets holding it high for show. Those childhood windmills have been blown up into colourful and monumental sculptures. The Playing Windmills is sited close to Hobsonville Point Primary School where the work delights a new generation of children.
Location: Hobsonville Point Park Plaza
Artist: Nick Eagles
Materials: Granite
Hobsonville Point is infused with flight history and with so much change occurring in the landscape artist/designer Nick Eagles wanted to give some continuity to that history. In Remnants of Flight, sited in the Hobsonville Point Park plaza, each slice of granite replicates the 'V' form of a bird in a moment of flight. Each shape has been designed to lead into the next, so, when stacked together, a shuttered sequence and sense of movement takes shape. The sequence can then be interpreted as a kind of inventory of take-offs and landings, linking Hobsonville Point Park to its former life as an airstrip.
Location: Hobsonville Point Park
Artist: Tiffany Singh, Wiremu Diamond, and the students of Hobsonville Point Primary
Materials: Timber, Paint, Additions by Hobsonville Point Primary students
This collaborative installation has four gates, drawing inspiration from the Japanese Torri gate tradition, the purpose of which is to divide our world and the spirit world. The artwork also pays homage to local heritage, installed in a gentle curve to frame the edge of the old runway.
Location: Hobsonville Point Park
Artist: John Reynolds
Materials: Charred or Stained Wooden Poles
Taking its cue from nineteenth century illustrations of local Maori demarcation poles, and photos of the eventual fencing of boundaries with the arrival of more recent communities Tiwatawata dramatises the processes of 'marking off' the land. The work consists of 108 poles of various diameters at irregular distances apart and at differing heights, that chart a straight, dark line dissecting the park.
Location: Hobsonville Point Park
Artist: Philipp Meier, Isthmus Group, and Cicada Workshop
Materials: Stainless Steel, Corten Steel
The landscape architects at Isthmus worked closely with Cicada Workshop to develop the seedpods and nest designs for our sculptural playground. The collaborative approach has produced a unique play experience. The seedpods and their surroundings build on landscape values inherent in the Hobsonville Point development such as habitat provision, education about the environment and native planting.
Location: Launch Road
Artist: A team effort, led by Alison Milne of Knitted Graffiti
Materials: Pohutukawa tree, yarn
Shades or red, orange and hot pink, combined with splashes of lime, adorn Hobsonville Point Road's pohutukawa tree.
Led by artist, Alison Milne, a team of creative volunteers have been busy behind the scenes, making magical and entirely unique creations out of acrylic wool. Ornate and intricate designs, sewn together to form a larger cosy covering, intrigued all those who wander by.
Small and simple but with plenty of heart, Chichester Cottage has stood the test of time. Built in 1927, “the shack” provided accommodation for owners Doug and Audrey Mill while they constructed their much grander home, Windover (now called Mill House), nearby. Once their home was completed in 1929, the cottage at the end of the garden became a guest retreat used by visitors, including the renowned British sailor and aviator Sir Francis Chichester, for whom it is named.
Location: Corner Buckley Ave and Hobsonville Point Road
Artist: Stephen Woodward
Materials: Marble, granite, basalt stone
These three stone carvings reference the landscape, the military heritage of the area and the present-day development. Clip refers to the regimented nature of military life. Tool has a two-sided blade symbolising the landscape before and after development. Heart of Stumps' silhouette reminds us of the ancient trees that covered the landscape.
