Standing Tall #35

It has been over two years since my last Standing Tall post and over TEN years since I actually saw this cross-city sculpture trail in the first place. We’ve had two more since it concluded, one involving penguins and the other variations on Elmer the Elephant. Ah well, there’s nothing else for it but to keep chugging on, as we are closer to the finish line then we were back in 2022. (This is giraffe #35 out of #50).

Here in Aotearoa we love our native birds, so there was little surprise that they turned up so prevalently on these sculptures. This giraffe, situated in front of Jellie Park, one of the city’s largest public pools, is covered with them: the pukeko, the fantail, the wood pigeons – as well as some native flowers and fish (those yellow ones are kowhai, the red are pohutakawa).

I like the way it stretches from the stony river bed at the giraffe’s feet, up through the branches to the birds and monarch butterfly at the giraffe’s head. Designed by Ira Mitchell-Kirk, it’s called Reach for the Stars, presumably referring to the white stars on the solid blue background – though to be honest they look more like the stars on the Australian flag given they’re not outlined in red, and there are too many to denote the Southern Cross, the star constellation on our flag.

Still, it’s a nice work – I may have just been a bit distracted as I distinctly remember dropping my camera on the concrete steps.