A mural in Leamington Domain which was to have been safe from vandals and taggers has instead become a victim of Mother Nature or global warming in just over two years.
This tui cut out is one victim of Mother Nature at the Leamington Domain.
The tui which was on the left of the structure has disappeared. Photos: Mary Anne Gill.
The piece of art cost $14,000 and used plywood cut outs of kowhai, cow, flax, horse, moths, cicada, tui, fantails, kaka and huhu beetles.
Some of them now lie in pieces at the base of the shipping container owned by the Cambridge Model Engineering Society while others that remain are noticeably fraying at the edges.
Brad Webb
Waipā District Council Community Services manager Brad Ward said judging from the photos provided by The News, nature was the culprit for the plywood pop outs peeling in the way they did.
He confirmed staff would visit the site and then form a plan to both repair and future proof the artistic work.
The mural was the first piece of public art approved under the council’s new Public Arts Policy. It was to decorate the miniature trains storage shed at the western end of Leamington Domain.
It depicts native flora and fauna with forms painted on thin plywood and affixed to painted wooden and brick walls. Pirongia artist Janie Neal was commissioned to complete the artwork.
At the time of its commissioning, council staff said its design would reduce the impact of the built structures on open space with part of the mural mainly black and white with light brown colours to achieve this.
Parks and reserves operations team leader Matt Johnston assured councillors the ply cut outs would be safe from vandals and that in his experience, taggers tended to leave mural artworks alone. But seemingly Mother Nature is another thing.
See: Right river art, set to go
See: New backdrop for domain trains
Plywood cut outs have fallen off the mural at Leamington Domain
The Leamington Domain mural soon after its completion.
