Albatross Fountain ... #83

This is another in the series of sculptures around our city and is located next to the Lagoon in Frank Kits Park on the harbour edge. Behind the fountain is The Boat Shed which houses rowing skiffs and equipment downstairs and a function facility upstairs .. many a great night has been had there !!!

If you look at a previous photo you can pick out the edge of the fountain wall right on the left hand side of the image

Tanya Ashken: Albatross
Location: Frank Kitts Park
Materials: Ferro-cement
Date of installation: 1986

Originally designed for an Auckland location, this was the first Wellington Sculpture Trust project. The Trust raised funds for the sculpture with the assistance of a donation from Wellington City Council.

"The Wellington Sculpture Trust came into being with the creation of of Albatross, under the inspiration of Dr Ian Prior and Henry Lang. The sculpture itself started life as an idea for three abstract shapes interacting with themselves and their intermingling spaces. The water was always a part of it, evoking feelings of rocks and the sea. The name came suddenly in a moment of inspiration!

''I have always been fascinated by the Albatross, its size, its power and its awesome grace. My sculpture is large and white and of the sea. There is a realistic albatross there too, as I realised when the sculpture was being built. I now think of it as a lament for the albatrosses as they disappear from this planet."
Tanya Ashken

Hone Tuwhare wrote a poem in honour of the occasion:
'without skin and flesh to hold you together the division of your aerodynamic parts lies whitening licked clean by sun and air and water.'
From Toroa, 1999 Steele Roberts, Albatross page 85.