Winds of Change

Following the 2011 earthquake the Waimakariri District was given $20,000 by Creative New Zealand for a Public Art Project. Thirteen submissions were shortlisted and Alison Erickson was the successful applicant with her sculpture ‘Winds Of Change’.

The sculpture depicts a family group. A man, a woman and a child. ‘The man is contained by the past, he is bent inwards and feeling the loss of the past. The woman is the bridge that holds them together. She looks outwards to find something tangible that will last. The child is pointing outwards towards the future’. The sculpture has three aspects to it; the earthquake that equals change. The north-west wind which equals the raw elements.The voice of the people. In order to engage the public they were invited to submit short poems on the subject of Winds of Change. Seventy poems were submitted and five were selected and were etched into copper plate and fixed to the concrete plinth on which the sculpture sits.

Due to a fire ban in North Canterbury the work was delayed as Alison was unable to operate her kiln while the fire ban was in place.Since 1998 Alison has lived and worked in the small North Canterbury settlement of Waikari where she sculpts and casts bronze. Her works are represented in public and private collections in NZ and abroad. One of her other artworks ‘Looking for Something That Will Last’ can be found above the Diamond Harbour wharf on Banks Peninsula.