Weta unveils World Cup sculpture

KENT BLECHYNDEN/ The Dominion Post

REACH FOR IT: Wellington All Black Victor Vito, right, was a model for the Rugby World Cup statue unveiled at Weta Workshop by Sir Richard Taylor, left.

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They would be dominated in any real lineout, but the giant rugby players in Sir Richard Taylor's sculpture look just as heroic as he imagined.

At Weta Workshop yesterday, Sir Richard gazed up at the bronze and concrete sculpture he and a team of 35 people have spent more than a year designing, casting and smoothing for the Rugby World Cup.

From the choppy, concreted waves of Cook Strait, two clashing rugby teams rise. Their thighs churn upwards, their muscled arms lifting opposing players in a lineout. At the peak, a victorious player holds aloft a rugby ball, cast in burnished bronze.

"This has been quite a technical and artistic challenge for us," Sir Richard said in a short speech in front of Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, Wellington city councillors and guests at the unveiling of the $350,000 project.

"I wanted to try and capture a moment in the game that I feel is the primary moment, where you celebrate the pursuit of the ball by two teams. It's an incredibly heroic moment, and the chap that gets the ball almost takes on a superman quality."

The clashing of the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea adds to the tension, with the low-relief sculpture – which climbs to a full figurative style – influenced by turn-of-the-century Chinese and Russian art movements, he said. It was designed so people could sit on it, and he hoped children would climb on its curves.

Wellington All Black Victor Vito, who modelled for the sculpture with Hurricanes Jacob Ellison and James Broadhurst, was impressed. "I didn't know it was going to be quite so big."

The sculpture was based on a heavily modified lift performed by the players, after Weta Workshop found their regular lineout a bit boring.

"It ended up being lineout lifts with one-legged lifts with a bit of basketball layout jumping. We had to give a bit of everything really," Vito said. "If you look at it, it's terrible technique."

The sculpture will be winched on to the Jack Ilott Green in Civic Square in July.

- © Fairfax NZ News