Ellerslie brings Weta Workshop to Christchurch
Friday 18 January 2013, 4:23PM
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Ellerslie International Flower Show is bringing Weta Workshop to Christchurch, with their fantasy sculptures featuring in former All Black Andy Ellis and landscape architect Danny Kamo’s gold medal winning entry from the Singapore Garden Festival.
The international award-winning garden by design duo Kamo and Ellis has been adapted and will provide the stunning setting for Johnny Fraser-Allen’s The Gloaming exhibition, curated and presented by Sir Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger from Weta Workshop.
Fraser-Allen, a senior sculptor and conceptual designer at Weta Workshop, created the sculptures for the popular exhibition that ran in Wellington late last year. The sculptural portraits are based on Eurocentric and Pacific mythological creatures and will be located within the native bush garden.
“It’s exciting to be part of Ellerslie and quite a change for me. I already knew quite a lot about the show though as my mother and grandmother live in Christchurch and go along every year to check it out,” Fraser-Allen says.
Kamo and Ellis are thrilled their garden – that won gold in July last year at the Singapore Garden Festival against 15 of the world’s top garden designers – has been given a new twist. It will still feature the cave that was created by Weta Workshop previously, but the shaking movement has been removed.
“This is something really different that we are sure will transport young and old alike into a world of fantasy. It is great to be able to adapt the garden and work on something new for the show,” Kamo, of KamoMarsh Landscape Architects, says.
The pair has twice competed at Ellerslie International Flower Show, winning Gold, the Supreme Award for Design Excellence, Silver and a Lighting Award.
Fraser-Allen is particularly happy the children of Christchurch will have the opportunity to see The Gloaming in person.
“My goal is to make the fantastical more realistic for kids, as well as inspire adults to imagine the stories that surround them. They (the sculptures) are so much part of my own life I could write a small thesis on each one of them”.
The garden will be one of the feature exhibits at the show, to be held at North Hagley Park from 6 to 10 March 2013.
Exhibition Manager Kate Hillier anticipates it will be one of the most popular gardens.
Discounted tickets at Early Bird prices are available until midnight on 14 February 2013 from the website www.ellerslieflowershow.co.nz, all open Christchurch City Council Service Centres, Mitre 10 Mega Stores in Christchurch, Ashburton and Timaru, Terra Viva and Nichols Garden Centres.