Sister City sculpture: Kia ora Korea
The recent installation of local artist Leah Fraser Henderson’s sculpture in Songpa-Gu, Seoul, South Korea has been a highlight of the year for the City Council-supported Christchurch-Songpa-Gu Sister City Committee.
The sculpture was gifted to Songpa-Gu by the Christchurch sister city committee to celebrate the 10-year sister-city relationship.
Councillor Sally Buck, who managed the project, and Leah Fraser Henderson, a Diamond Harbour sculptor, were invited to the unveiling ceremony. “The sculpture’s now on the shores of West Seokchon Lake (in Songpa-Gu); a lovely place where a lot of people will see it,” Cr Buck says.
“In the brief for this artwork, I told the artists that the Songpa-Gu Council requested it to have a Christchurch/New Zealand identity. They asked for it to be a sculpture of about five to six feet high and be of human form/s. It is a beautiful piece of work and I had a lot of help from Mary Yoon, the chair of the sister city committee,” she says.
The Kia ora sculpture’s stainless steel face is shined to a mirror finish and mounted against what is thought to be the largest piece of Halswell Quarry stone to leave New Zealand.
It has been designed so people look eye to eye with it, in a sense looking through our eyes on to the world, according to Leah Fraser Henderson. “Being able to see it in place was a dream come true for me ... I was overwhelmed by the unveiling,” she says.
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