2009 Under the Harbour

The Tory Street site on which Moore Wilson’s built their supermarket premises was originally home to Thomson, Lewis & Company, one of the main soft drink producers in Wellington. A water diviner discovered water at the site in 1926, and it is believed this water flows underneath Wellington Harbour, with its origins possibly in the Wairarapa. The water was of a consistent high quality and was used by the soda company for 53 years to manufacture their soft drinks.

When Thomson, Lewis & Company sold their business, the original bore was capped, but the bore water was still accessible inside Moore Wilson’s building. Often older men would come to the shop with glass flagons asking for water. When the business modified their building to create a fresh food section, they made a walkway, conveniently sited to allow people to cut through when heading back towards the waterfront, effectively making a public pathway created by private sponsors. Wanting to recognise the history of the site, they commissioned Dibble to make a sculpture that portrayed the story, and they installed a tap for people to freely take water.

The sculpture needed to fit along the wall of the walkway, with a piece towering above to an overhead car park, so it could be seen from three aspects: either from the store’s extension through the glass entrance, walking through the passageway, or looking down from the car parking areas above.

Dibble’s final design, made and installed 2009, is a sculpture with four components.

On the far right stands a figure, referencing the sculptures of Matisse, with fluid languid lines. Her stance is much like the models used in posters advertising soft drinks in the 1930s. The figure leans upon an enormous bottle, scaled up from the ones that would have been used at the former bottling plant. Next is a giant version of the divining rod, stretching up to the level above. Lastly a massive fish, referencing the legend of Māui fishing up the North Island, whimsically carries in its mouth a ribbon, which tells the story of the water travelling through its ancient route under seas and hills to reach this spot.