About Chalice : Image gallery : Related information

• Background
• Design
• The sculptor: Neil Dawson
• Collaborators

Background
Chalice, a permanent sculpture located in Christchurch's Cathedral Square, celebrates the new millennium and the 150^th Anniversary of the founding of Christchurch and Canterbury by the Canterbury Association.

The official lighting ceremony for Chalice was held 7 September 2001.

The Turning Point 2000 Trust commissioned Neil Dawson to produce a major contemporary, public artwork for Christchurch.

The sculpture project was led by Art 2000, one of fourteen Turning Point 2000 Advisory Groups. Turning Point 2000 raised the funds for Chalice through grants from The Community Trust and the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board. In addition, Christchurch City Council has met the cost of the foundations, granite base, drainage works and lighting.

Top of page

Design
Chalice has a primary hexagonal steel structure and a solid steel conical base. The native leaf patterns are cut from aluminium sheet, welded to custom-made triangular beam structures, and then bolted into position on the frame.

The exterior of the conical structure is painted silver using a durable automotive paint. The interior of the sculpture, seen through the perforated shell, is painted metallic blue.

Surrounding the foot of Chalice is a dark band of black pearl granite in six segments making a circle just over 3 metres in diameter.

Chalice stands 18 metres high and is 1.2 metres in diameter at the ground and 8.5 metres in diameter at the top. The conical shape mirrors the spire of Christchurch Cathedral.

Chalice has a solid steel base up to approximately three metres above the ground and beyond that comprises a perforated network of 42 aluminium shapes depicting the leaves of native trees that previously grew in the city area. The leaves depicted are mapou, kowhai, mahoe, totara, karamu, titoki, ngaio, maratata and koromiko.

The 42 leaf patterns – complex constructions made up of computer routed shapes – are also intended to reflect the geometric features of the Cathedral, architecture, windows and tiles. As the leaves become larger, higher up the sculpture, they also become more detailed and less dense. The open texture of the artwork allows views into and through it.

Top of page

Neil has designed Chalice and closely supervised production of the fully engineered sculpture.

Top of page

Collaborators
The project has also involved a number of local contractors including:

• Router cutting - SignTech the Signmasters
• Aluminium leaf fabrication - Davin Industries
• Structural steelwork - Slade Engineering
• Botanical consultant - Di Lucas
• Painting - Robert O’Neill Panel and Paint
• Foundation construction - Fulton Hogan Civil
• Granite base - Tretheweys Granite & Marble
• Lighting - Connectics / Phillips Lighting
• Engineering - Holmes Consulting Group
• Computer design - Colin McLeod
• City Council co-ordination - City Solutions

Top of page