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An explorer, his dogs, and a new public sculpture

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

A render image of Christchurch’s new public sculpture, courtesy of artist Brett Graham and SCAPE Public Art. “The piece of granite will have 99 mounds carved on its surface as a reference to the 99 days of Amundsen
A render image of Christchurch’s new public sculpture, courtesy of artist Brett Graham and SCAPE Public Art. “The piece of granite will have 99 mounds carved on its surface as a reference to the 99 days of Amundsen's journey...”

Joe Bennett is an award-winning Lyttelton-based writer, columnist and playwright

OPINION: A new public sculpture has been announced for Christchurch. It celebrates the exploits of a dog-eating Norwegian explorer. The critical reaction has been as predictable as sunrise. “You call that art?” exclaimed the philistines on social media. “What a waste of public money.”

In October 1911 Roald Amundsen set out for the South Pole with four colleagues and 52 dogs. Three months later he returned with four colleagues and 11 dogs. The missing 41 dogs had been shot and eaten. And Brett Graham of Auckland is now commemorating Amundsen's journey with his sculpture, Erratic, to be erected on the banks of the Avon River at a cost of $160,000.

The term erratic is used by geologists to describe a rock picked up by a glacier and deposited where it doesn’t belong, so it is fitting that Graham imported a nine-tonne chunk of Norwegian granite to make his sculpture. Norwegian granite has as little to do with Christchurch as Amundsen did, who visited the city just once in order to give a lecture.

Graham's sculpture will stand across the river from the statue of Amundsen’s rival Scott. Scott had a lot to do with Christchurch. He spent time there preparing for both his Antarctic expeditions and became a familiar and much-admired character in the city.

**READ MORE:

* New $160,000 artwork for Christchurch pays tribute to polar pioneer

Norwegians Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting at the South Pole in 1911.
Norwegians Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting at the South Pole in 1911.

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Joe Bennett: “Here is an overdue nod to those that gave their lives to Amundsen’s cause.”
Joe Bennett: “Here is an overdue nod to those that gave their lives to Amundsen’s cause.”

* New five-storey sculpture for central Christchurch to be installed by end of year

* Leading artist's four-tonne sculpture arrives in Christchurch for summer

**

In 1911, Scott and his party, hauling their own sleds, made it to the Pole only to learn that Amundsen, hauled and fuelled by dogs, had beaten them by a month. Amundsen had left a small tent and a letter for Scott to find. I cannot substantiate the rumour that he also left a single, taunting dog chop.

As everyone knows, Scott and his companions died on the return journey, to the distress of the people of Christchurch who erected the statue in his honour a few years later. But now it is Amundsen’s turn to be memorialised.

The piece of granite will have 99 mounds carved on its surface as a reference to the 99 days of Amundsen’s journey and also to discourage people from sitting on it. The mounds are in the form of a spiral. The viewer is inevitably reminded of the way bath water rotates around the plughole in opposite directions at the two poles. This magnificent work is layered with such significance.

Several of its critics have compared it to a stool deposited on the green lawns of Christchurch. No doubt they think themselves witty but surely this is part of the artist’s purpose. Dogs are famous defecators. Here is an overdue nod to those that gave their lives to Amundsen’s cause.

This sculpture had additional personal resonance for me. Amundsen was a bachelor who let nothing distract from his life of exploration. Nevertheless he conducted a long affair with a married woman by the name of Kristine ‘Kiss’ Bennett.

Now, there is a family legend that Kiss was my multiply-great aunt, and that the nickname was ironic, kissing being the one thing she refused to do with Amundsen. As a life-long breeder of springer spaniels she claimed to be able to “smell the husky on his breath”.

Whether or not this is true, Amundsen’s Wikipedia entry reports that he also conducted an affair with his landlady in Antwerp. But then he came home one evening to find her dead by her own hand. A coincidence? I don’t know. But it is all part of the subtext of this monument to Nordic caniphagy that, as Deborah McCormick of Scape Public Art put it, “… has such an incredible story to tell and carries such weight culturally and artistically. Erratic will make a fabulous addition to our city’s artwork collection.”