Philippa Stevenson column: City prepares to jump to the left
NIGHTLIFE: The Riff Raff monument honours former Hamiltonian Richard O'Brien, author of The Rocky Horror Show.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3610586&thesection=news&thesubsection=dialogue
16 November 2004
By PHILIPPA STEVENSON
Riff Raff, the statue, is about to appear among us.
In 10 days Hamilton's latest piece of public art will be unveiled - if all goes according to plan - on the stroke of midnight, in keeping with its origins in the horror movie-soaked mind of barber-cum-playwright Richard O'Brien.
Inevitably for public statuary, Riff Raff, the idea, has been controversial and it remains to be seen whether a permanently mincing reality will be too.
Probably. It's doubtful it could claim to be art, let alone publicly-owned art, if it didn't stir debate.
Out there, on the old Embassy Theatre site in what's become Hamilton's nightlife district, Riff Raff is bound to attract all sorts of attention.
After the dignitaries have retired from their late-night walk on the wildish side maybe the boguns who "do the circuit" in their boomboxed, low-riding cars will start pumping out music from another time warp - their parents' era. Yeah right.
But whomever the statue touches, big things are expected of Riff Raff. It is, for example, the reason the annual convention of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (the movie from which the character hails) will be held in Hamilton next year, on its 30th anniversary.
And in further homage to the Embassy Theatre and the pleasure its moving pictures gave generations - not least the late-night, double-feature horrors so profitably absorbed by O'Brien - the city council plans to erect a large movie-style screen in the park-like space left by the lost and lamented theatre. At night, a bit of creative lighting will silhouette Riff Raff onto the screen. He may even do the odd jump to the left.
Let the party begin. Where did I put my fishnets?
Even uncontroversial public art can get you doing odd things. Just the other day I got some very strange looks from people waiting at a Tristram Street bus stop as I hunted in the bushes outside Westpac Park for the Wounded Wicket Keeper.
I was on the hunt because city council arts and cultural unit manager Geoff Williams had just surprised me, and the city's arts co-ordinator Emma Pullar, by revealing the injured cricket player's existence. You could've knocked me over with a googly.
I'm not sure whether the Wicket Keeper - a tall, primer-orange tin man made by students at a summer art school around a decade ago - was ever controversial, but being almost completely hidden by shrubbery must have done a lot to banish any notoriety.
I suspect discerning art critics among the council parks and gardens staff were doing us all a favour by sparing the pruning shears.
Concealed cricketing casualties aside, a newly-completed register shows Hamilton has a surprising amount of public art. It lists 56 pieces owned by the council and 26 publicly displayed but privately owned.
The register also documents the unexpected stories behind some pieces which were in danger of being lost.
For instance, the fountain of three, vertical stainless steel tubes in central Civic Square was designed to depict the three mountains of the Central Plateau, Lake Taupo and the Waikato River.
No plaque accompanies the fountain and few Hamiltonians would know it to be anything other than a cool place on a hot day or an annoying spray on a windy one.
The council's year-old policy on art in public places was established to rectify such oversights and "contribute to the creation of a unique identity for Hamilton".
A unique identity seems assured with the extremes of the bucolic Farming Family at one end of Victoria Street and sweet transvestite Riff Raff at the other.
The 13-member Public Art Advisory Committee has the unenviable task of steering through such diversity. It intends to make a list of sites that are appropriate for new artworks and fit proffered works to sites, rather than simply finding somewhere, anywhere for something a philanthropist has decided to donate.
Submitted ideas will go through an evaluation process, including being tested to see whether they address "aspects of the city's history, culture or society".
Riff Raff was proposed before the new policy came into effect but his credentials are likely to have won him space anyway.
Fortunately for Riff Raff, the idea of his proposer, Mark Servian, fell on the fertile ground of the council marketing department. It pitched the idea to the Perry Foundation, which had already signalled it was looking for a public gesture to honour its namesake, businessman Brian Perry.
The Perry Foundation's backing of $100,000 made it almost inevitable that the council would stump up the $25,000 balance.
The WEL Energy Trust has stumped up $175,000 to make Hamilton's next public artwork possible.
To be created by sculptor Chris Booth, a New Zealand artist with an established international reputation, the large rock sculpture at the entrance to the Hamilton Gardens is bound to be a significant addition to the city's public art.
It will be doubly significant if it escapes controversy.
