Standing Tall: #1

There is a city-wide art project currently going on in the streets of Christchurch. Called Standing Tall, it involves the distribution of 99 fibreglass Giraffe sculptures, each symbolizing the strength and dignity of the city after the devastating 2010/2011 earthquakes.

Located on streets, parks and other public spaces, there are 49 large sculptures (reaching 2.5 metres high) and 50 small ones (standing about waist high). Businesses, community groups, charities, education establishments and individuals sponsored the blank Giraffe sculptures (provided by Wild in Art, which has already supplied gorillas to Norwich, rhinos to Southampton and lions to Northampton) and various artists were invited to submit their designs.

The sponsors chose their favourites and the selected artists got to work: adults on the larger Giraffes and school children on the smaller ones. Eventually they'll all be auctioned off in order to raise money for Christchurch charities.

Naturally, I've made it my mini-project to go and see them all, and I thought posting photographs here could be a nice way of keeping this blog active on its off-days.

So here's the first one: The Mosaic by Clare van der Plas, currently situated in front of what remains of the ChristChurch Cathedral.