Virtual
VirtualThe first sculptures I ever saw were war memorials from the First World War. Small communities erected these, often in places where they seemed to be completely out of place, as tributes.
London
Southern Stand: The New Zealand Memorial
The New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park Corner, in central London, is perhaps the best known of Paul Dibble’s sculptures. Many of the concepts and themes within the memorial were developed over decades: Dibble’s love of New Zealand icons, his interest in works that communicate with people and places, commemorating events and lives; and his work involving installations — made in the late 1970s and developed into more confident assertions in the early 1980s, all became important elements that were grafted into the memorial.
The erecting of war memorials was an international movement in the early years of the 21st century carried along by an overwhelming interest by a new generation in the collective memories of war. Thousands of young people, often wearing their grandparents’ medals, attended Armistice and Anzac Day ceremonies, and new memorials began to be built worldwide. In London, memorials for each of the Commonwealth countries were erected in the central parks.
Palmerston North
Auckland
Dunedin
The Lost Garden
Welcome to the garden where kowhai bloom and huia flock, drinking nectar in a secluded wonderland.
This is a land of abundance, a banquet, a world restored; sculpted by Paul Dibble in bronze, with opulent floral showers of gold.
Dibble’s garden recalls a lost paradise; a place where huia frolicked and kowhai flourished; a time of plenty, when life was simple and nature was undisturbed by human activity.
