Captain Cook Museum (England) gets a new Moai

Those of you in England will now have a new destination to visit.

Apr 3 2008 by Sandy McKenzie, Evening Gazette

A GIANT stone carving of a head has taken shape in Middlesbrough’s Stewart Park. The Marton Moai or Easter Island carved head has been taking shape outside the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum.

The 3m-high head was carved by Maori artist and sculptor George Nuku, from a four tonne piece of Yorkshire sandstone. He worked with North-east sculptor David Gross to carve the head.

George said: “This has been a really exciting time. Everyone involved has worked very hard to get the Moai ready and we have had a lot of fun along the way. The result is a fantastic piece of sculpture, made from local stone that will give visitors a new appreciation of contemporary Polynesian culture.”

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/2008/04/03/museum-gets-ahead-with-new-sculpture-84229-20712517/

A FOUR-TON slab of stone is to be transformed over the next few days into an Easter Island-style carving at Middlesbrough’s Captain Cook Birthplace Museum.

The museum, with the help and support of sponsors, has prepared the site for the installation of a new piece of Pacific art which will be a modern interpretation of an Easter Island statue, or Moai.

Oddly enough, I am currently reading Tony Horowitz's 'Blue Latitudes' and recently finished the portions where Horowitz visits Cook's Middlesbrough homeland. It is good to see this tribute/statue being done at the site.

Hopefully someone will soon provide an image of the sculpture.

Vern

Somehow this just doesn't do it for me. Nevertheless, more giant moai in public places is never a bad thing.
Flickr set here

The nose is all wrong - and that's usually the most interesting & naturalistic part of these - the forehead looks non-symetrical, and the whole sculpture ain't that big. Where's the topknot?

And sandstone will fall apart in a few years in England's weather. Give that guy an umbrella, quick!

I very much doubt the stone will fall apart, most of the buildings in the north of England are made from sandstone and have stood for hundreds of years and will continue to.
The design doesn't really do it for me either, there are a few other parts in the design I feel are wrong, but I am also not sure if it is meant to be a replica or an artistic impression.
George is a fantastic artist, his work has been shown all over the place (incl. the Luau), his work in polystyrene is really cool and there is talk of him carving a new "Whare" (sp?) in London at some point.

Yorkshire Sandstone...

Started 1295, finished in 1472. Still standing!