Serra

"The result of four years’ work surpassed Serra’s hopes. ‘I could not have imagined that the piece would come in as well as it did,’ he concluded.[9](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477365-869846975-9) New Zealand art critics were intrigued. Hamish Keith wrote, ‘The rural backblocks of Kaukapakapa are not a setting in which the casual traveller would expect to encounter one of this century’s great works of sculpture, but there it is.… On a fine north Auckland day with scudding clouds, sunlight rolls across the face of *Te Tuhirangi Contour,* painting its rolling curves with light. Seldom have I seen anything as fine or as moving.’[10](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477365-869846975-10) It forcibly struck Keith as an artwork that had required considerable courage to commission; so unlike anything that could have been undertaken by a public arts committee.[11](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477365-869846975-11) The work now features prominently in international surveys of Serra’s work.[12](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477365-869846975-12)"

"Serra is a rare artist who appears to enjoy and welcome input from others. Gibbs and Noel Lane chipped in with ideas. Of Gibbs, Serra said, ‘You know as kids there are some people you like to play with because you can make a quantum leap and some with whom you can’t; Alan is a great guy to play with.’ They built a wooden framed mock-up of the wall to gain a sense of how it sat in the landscape and a feel for how high it needed to be. Soon Serra and Gibbs fell into a debate about the material to be used. Serra wanted it to be steel, the material used in most of his works. But with the lean, he thought 4.8 metres high was the limit of what could practically be manufactured. Gibbs was insistent that 4.8 metres didn’t generate sufficient drama. He wanted six metres, and since at that height using steel would be a massive undertaking, they should build it in concrete. Serra stuck to his guns: *Why does it have to be in steel, why couldn’t you build it in plastic, why couldn’t it be in any other material? I came to a conclusion if you’re interested in inventing form, interested in matter, one of the things you understand immediately is that matter imposes form on form. I thought to win this game I had to humour him along enough and just outlast him. And I’m going to walk if he doesn’t want to do it. And I did. I really wanted to build it in steel or not at all.*[7](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477365-869846975-7)"