Standing Tall #36

Back to it!

This giraffe sculpture was a rather poignant one, as it was inspired by children who wear the Beads of Courage – that is, the unique strings of beads that children undergoing cancer treatment receive, one bead representing each milestone test or procedure they go through.

The name of the sculpture is Hero, which was decided upon after the Child Cancer Foundation put out a call for suggestions. One contributor proposed Hero as: “this is what all our children are to their loved ones.” Once again painted by Ira Mitchell-Kirk (his name pops up a lot; I can only assume he was commissioned to paint several of these giraffes) and sponsored by the Child Cancer Foundation, it depicts the large glass beads that make up these mementoes against a bright blue background.

It was situated in Merivale Mall, which was a bit of an odd venue for it (surely the hospital would have been a better fit?) but as you can tell from all the Christmas decorations, I visited during the holidays!

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.

Standing Tall #34

I can’t say this was one of my favourite giraffes, but at least the venue was nice: Mona Vale, an intercity garden park with lots of beautiful lawns and herbaceous borders. Wandering down its pathways and happening across a giraffe beneath a row of trees did make for a nice afternoon.

Called Kea Parrot Stay, it was designed by Alejandra Diaz, a Costa Rican painter who grew up around parrots and as such was inspired to decorate this giraffe with New Zealand’s most famous example of the species: the kea. According to my guidebook, the kea’s skill at solving puzzles and their ability to work together are traits also to be found in Cantabrians, which… is a bit of a thematic stretch, but okay.

A mint-green giraffe with stencil-like pastel images of keas and a few white ferns didn’t make this the most memorable sculpture on display, but as it happens, it’s now been over a decade since the 2011 Christchurch earthquake that claimed 185 lives. This entire art exhibition was brought about in the wake of the disaster as a way of injecting colour and creativity into the city as the rebuild went on, and I’m reminded of the experience of travelling around the city in search of these giraffes: a chance to talk with other seekers, to see places in the city I’d never visited before, to see Christchurch gradually coming back to life… maybe there is something in Cantabrians being compared to keas.  

Standing Tall #33

This was one of the very first giraffes I visited, largely because it was one of the most accessible. As with several others, it was displayed in the Botanical Gardens, and quite near the playgrounds given its subject matter. As painted by Martyn Giles and sponsored by Buildtech, the giraffe is given the uniform and colours of the Canterbury Rams, our local basketball team. The Rams are also sponsored by BuildTech, thus explaining the design and the giraffe’s name: Dunk.

And there ends my knowledge of both basketball and this giraffe. To compensate, here’s a fun fact about Hagley Park, in which the Christchurch Botanical Gardens are located: in terms of size it’s second only to New York’s Central Park as the world’s largest intercity park. And now you know.

Standing Tall #32

This giraffe is unique for having a “mini-me” version of itself that was unfortunately locked inside the visitor’s center at the time of this photograph, and so can’t be featured here. As it happens, there were a lot of mini-giraffe sculptures, though this was the only one painted by artists and not school children, as part of a matching set. (If memory serves, I also think this was the first giraffe I visited).

It’s a little odd that it was featured at the Ilex Center (a café and giftshop) at the Botanic Gardens and not the Christchurch Airport considering it was sponsored by Air New Zealand, and has a very aeronautical theme. Designed by artists JacobYikes (one word) and Gemma Rae Dudson, the large one is called Mapthew and the smaller Head Above the Clouds.

Mapthew is clearly a play on words, as it looks from a distance like a traditional giraffe, only for close proximity to reveal that its spots are in the shape of the world’s countries. Its little counterpart makes fun of its diminutive size by covering its body with clouds and rendering its head in natural colours, making it look like it’s literally got its head above the cloud-line.

Here it is here, though this was taken at the end of the art trail, when all the giraffes were temporarily put on display at Russley Golf Course before the charity auction:

Standing Tall #31

I haven’t done one of these in a while!

This giraffe, called The Best of Times, was one of the best sculptures on display. It was beautifully located outside Riccarton House, which is a heritage site comprised of two of the earliest buildings constructed by European settlers in Christchurch, and a native bush area containing kahikatea trees up to six hundred years old. It’s also where my uncle and aunt got married, though that’s neither here nor there.

Sponsored by Kidicorp (a childcare organization) the artist is Penny Cameron, herself a preschool teacher. According to my guidebook, it took over 170 hours to create, with thousands of pieces of coloured tile making up the mosaic surface of the giraffe, portraying a variety of places, seasons and activities to be found in Christchurch. I can see depictions of the Chinese lantern festival, the daffodils at the Botanic Gardens, and the Ferrier Fountains outside the Town Hall to identify but three.

I ended up visiting this one twice, as Riccarton House and its weekend markets are one of my favourite places to visit at the best of times (see what I did there?) and it was ultimately one of the most popular giraffes put to auction.

Standing Tall #30

Well, there was bound to be at least one dud. What feels like a commissioned piece rather than something an artist was genuinely moved to create, Wicket was situated outside the Christchurch’s Hagley Oval in anticipation of the cricket test match that was scheduled to take place there the following year.

Artist Ira Mitchell-Kirk slathers this giraffe in the white silhouettes of cricketeers and the various flags of the participating countries, to commemorate the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. According to my souvenir guide (because cricket is about as interesting to me as golf and drying paint), it kicked off with the Blackcaps playing against Sri Lanka – but don’t ask me who won.

But hey, with this giraffe we’ve officially reached the thirties!

Standing Tall #29

This giraffe (called Giraffe Crossing) was based on a fairly straightforward concept by artist Mark Catley: its minimal black lines creating an illusion of both bandages and zebra crossings. Together they remind Christchurch residents of the rebuild in the wake of the earthquakes – not only the visible wounds, but also the need to carefully pick a safe path around the debris. Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch, but that’s what my guidebook said.

Of more interest to me was learning that this sculpture was in Hazeldean Business Park, a place I’d never visited before. What, pray tell, was a business park? Turns out it’s just a square of grass outside an office block and next to a carpark. Which turned out to be rather hazardous, as someone managed to drive straight into this sculpture, requiring it to be removed for repairs for a couple of weeks.

It was standing by the time I got to it, but it wasn’t one of the most memorable contributions, and not even the only one to utilize a zebra motif. But we’ll get to that one in time…

Standing Tall #28

Any kiwi kid knows who Harold the Giraffe is; in fact, it was just the other day that a little girl at the library was telling me about his visit to her school. The mascot of Life Education, Harold travels around the country to teach children about nutrition, education, self-esteem and environmentalism. Quite a big ask for a puppet, but he’s been around since the eighties at least, and clearly still going strong. (I even got a picture of him in last year’s Santa Parade).

Harold, along with The Longest Drink in Town (we’ll get to that in good time) is coincidentally one of two easily-recognizable cultural icons in New Zealand that just happens to be a giraffe, and I suspect that this may have even been the reason why giraffe sculptures were chosen in the first place.

This one, designed by Gemma Rae Dudson, pays tribute to the fact that Harold is technically a hand-puppet by only depicting him from the neck upwards – and the rest is a mural of children enjoying the great outdoors. As such, its location was on the outskirts of the Pioneer Recreation and Sport Centre, which is very much in keeping with Harold’s ideals.

Standing Tall #27

Now this was one of my absolute favourite giraffes. Called Moa Giraffe by Mandii Pope, it was located by the Cashmere Valley Reserve (specifically, the playground) which was the perfect place given its connection to the natural world and its sense of fun.

This extinct bird is one of the iconic symbols of New Zealand, but obviously a two-legged flightless bird doesn't translate too well into the form of a giraffe. Yet Pope found a way: by painting its back legs to look like moa legs, and covering its front with native ferns, complete with two large eggs and baby hatchlings.  

Its body is covered in feathers, its nose is painted as a beak, and its ears and ossicones have become feathers. The finishing touch is a Māori Koru Headband (so we can infer this is a female giraffe, if the presence of eggs wasn't already a giveaway). 

It was one of my favourites, just for the novelty of the idea and the way it was carried off. A moa that looks like a giraffe. Genius.

Standing Tall #26

So in the Souvenir Guide this giraffe is referred to as a “wild card”, which makes sense considering it’s the only interactive one. It’s essentially a three-dimensional blackboard, and came complete with a box of chalk so that passers-by could add their own drawings, doodles, names or dedications. As you can see, by the time we got there is was already covered from head to hoof.

The only permanent markings were a tic-tac-toe board on the back, a necklace of primary shapes around the neck and a few decorations on the head, which you can barely see amongst all the chalk scribbles – though I suppose we have to give artist Hayden Graham for them?

For Fun was situated outside Christchurch’s South Library, which allowed for a large foot-count of children and their artistic talent – though when I saw this giraffe again at the Russley Golf Course (where they gathered all the sculptures after January 24th of 2015) it had been wiped clean.

I suppose there’s some metaphor there about the impermanence of art, though it seemed a shame to lose all that work.