Walkway comes alive with noise of stone sculptors at work

ROBERT CHARLES/ Taranaki Daily News

SET IN STONE: New Plymouth stone sculptor Renate Verbrugge begins work on her stone sculpture at theeighth Te Kupenga Stone Sculpture Symposium.

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Stone sculptors from Taranaki, New Zealand and around the globe will spend the next 18 days turning slabs of Mt Taranaki rock into works of art.

The eighth biennial Te Kupenga Stone Sculpture Symposium began yesterday with 26 artists setting to work on their sculptures.

Eleven local stone sculptors, a further 10 from around New Zealand and five from various spots around the globe will ply their trade, using diamond and tungsten tipped saws and grinders, air compressors and hand tools on the foreshore in front of Centre City.

New Plymouth sculptor Renate Verbrugge faces a more difficult challenge than most of her stone-working colleagues.

She must complete her sculpture in five days before jetting to India for another symposium in Gwalior.

She is planning an abstract and organic look for her design, almost a landscape on the top of the rock, she said.

"I've been here every year since 2000.

"It's a passion for me and I think symposiums are very important.

"Stone sculpting is very solitary, usually you're in your own studio doing your work so it's great to come out and do our work in public and also around other sculptors so we can share our ideas."

One of the sculptors she will be able to share ideas with is Jocelyn Pratt, of Putaruru, who says the Te Kupenga symposium is her favourite in New Zealand.

The Mt Taranaki volcanic andesite stone is also her favourite, she says, for its durability, strength, colour and consistency.

She said she was going for stylish simplicity with her sculpture – a circle frame with a hole in the middle.

Like most stone sculptors, she said the shape of the rock itself held the key to the final design.

"I just like working with stone and working with natural material and the challengesyou might have becauseit is natural," she said.

"There might have to be a design change yet."

Danny Clahane has come from England for the symposium for the first time.

He started his sculpture by carving a face gazing out to sea.

"I want to create some kindof movement in there, giving the idea of wind and water," he said.

The sculptors will finish their pieces by January 15, followedby an exhibition until January23 when the sculptureswill be auctioned off.

The Te Kupenga Stone Sculpture Symposium working area is closed to the public during the day, but by 7pm each day the sculptors must have stopped work so the area can be opened up and people can wander around.

- © Fairfax NZ News