Regan Gentry’s sculpture was the first new public piece commissioned by the Christchurch City Council’s Public Art Advisory Group. Funding for the work was made available from the Council’s Public Art Fund with a substantial donation from Dame Adrienne Stewart and the Estate of the late Sir Robertson Stewart.

IMAGE: Regan Gentry, Flour Power, 2008. Image courtesy of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, SCAPE Public Art & and Regan Gentry

About the artwork

Flour Power is SCAPE Public Art’s seventh permanent artwork in Ōtautahi Christchurch. Gentry describes his work fondly as a ‘centrepiece’ for Stewart Plaza, “…as if a friendly giant has walked through the garden city gathering lamp-posts like flowers and tying them into a bunch with a car tyre.”

Flour Power is an impressive artistic statement, distinctive for both its formal qualities and commentary on the changing nature of New Zealand cities. As Gentry describes, “In Canterbury, fields of crops have given way to fields of houses. Rows of wheat have been replaced by rows of street lights. Farm tractors have grown smaller and multiplied exponentially, growing sleeker and faster, modified to ‘pull chicks’ instead of ploughs.”

Flour Power was generously supported by:
Christchurch City Council’s Public Art Fund
Dame Adrienne Stewart and the Estate of the late Sir Robertson Stewart

With special thanks to:
Anderson Lloyd Lawyers, Beca, Boffa Miskell, Chambers PR, Fletcher Construction, Heritage Management Services and Phil Price