Gibbs Sculpture Farm Park: A land reshaped

88.5˚ ARC x 8 – Bernar Venet                                                            Arches – Andy Goldsworthy

Dismemberment, Site 1 – Anish Kapoor                                                                   Horizons – Neil Dawson

Green and White Fence – Daniel Buren                                     Lunch at Mataia Homestead

By Alison Cox

The final final bus trip for the year saw 70 plus members and friends of the Mangawhai Historical Society travelling in style on one of two Leabourns buses to Kaukapakapa, calling in to Alan Gibbs’ amazing Sculpture Farm Park before lunching at Mataia Homestead.

At the farm park we spent a fascinating couple of hours tramping up hill and down dale visiting as many of the 25 sculptures as we could. The weather was just right – breezy and not too hot – although it must be admitted there were a few who found the walk a bit challenging and arrived back rather breathless and red in the face! 

It was hard to pick a favourite sculpture, all of which are blended into the landscape. On the approach to the farm, even the car park appeared at first glance to be some giant undulating sculpture adorning the hillside.

Rob Garrett explains the concept of the farm park on the Gibbs Farm website: 

The farm is dominated by the Kaipara Harbour, the largest harbour in the Southern hemisphere. The harbour is so vast it occupies the whole western horizon; and it is very shallow, so when the tide goes out, the shallows are exposed for several kilometres and the light shimmies and bounces off it across the land. Equally, it is the forecourt to the prevailing westerly weather that sweeps, sometimes vehemently, across the land. Everything in the property flows towards and eventually into the sea; and every work contends in some way with the slide seaward.

The flow of the land, the immense body of water, the wide harbour flats and the assertive variety of the elements have all imposed themselves on the artists. Gibbs acknowledges that “the challenge for the artists is the scale of the landscape; it scares them initially” and demands something more from them. Walking the land visitors can appreciate how each artist has come to terms in their own way with the gravitational pull that is exerted on everything as the mountains roll into hills and slide into gullies and slope down towards the wide flat expanse of the Kaipara harbour.

Having worked up an appetite, it was back on to the buses to make the short trip to the historic Mataia Homestead in Glorit. Here we were greeted by Gillian Adshead (nee Gardner) who gave a brief account of its history.

The Mataia Homestead and surrounding farmland has been in the Gardner family for over 150 years. Built in 1891 the homestead has been home to five generations of the Gardner family and is registered as a Category 2 Historic Building with the NZ Historic Places Trust. The unusual M-shaped red roof on the double-storey house has made the homestead the focus of a number of artists over the years. Iconic NZ potter Briar Gardner was also brought up and educated at Mataia in the late 1890s.

Over the generations the house slowly deteriorated and by the late 1980s was virtually uninhabitable when the family made the decision to restore her in time for the centenary celebrations in 1991. Today it serves as accommodation for the exclusive use of walkers on the Kaipara2Kaipara Walk.

The Gardner family members provided us with a delicious, and most welcome, lunch of prepared sandwiches, savouries, cake and slices of fruit. This we worked off with a stroll around the large gardens and for some, a quick nap on the way home!

Our thanks to Leabourns for the transport, to the Gardner family for their wonderful hospitality, and to the Gibbs Family for their generosity in sharing such a special place.

Note: The two hours we spent at the farm park just didn’t allow us to cover all of the sculptures. Many of us will be going back for a more leisurely stroll and a picnic lunch under the trees.  Entry to the farm park is free, but you do need to book in for one of their open days (weekdays only). Full details are available on their website.

Online www.gibbsfarm.org.nz and www.mataia.co.nz