Who's Afraid, by Paul Dibble (2011)

Overnight in Palmerston North, where I have spent two days with a colleague undertaking a review. Although the weather turned a little foul by the time I was leaving, the aeroplanes were still flying, and I am safely back in Auckland. I had carefully packed my camera in the overhead locker so the brilliant western sky as the sun was setting while we travelled north is recorded only in my memory, and the camera of the young woman in the row behind.

Before dawn this morning I took a run into the centre of the city of Palmerston North, and just before I reached the square I saw this and stopped to take a photo.

Information about it can be found here; I've summarised it below.

Who’s Afraid is the sixth work commissioned by the Palmerston North Public Sculpture Trust, and is by a local artist, Paul Dibble. It is on Broadway in the centre of the city, outside the Regent Theatre (the city’s centre for performing arts).

It is described as a bronze of blue-green patina, and consists of two contrasting pieces challenging each other, physically and metaphorically. The dancer is the taller (at 3.5 m), and is closer to the theatre. She is a “smooth, agile, expressive performer”, while the tuatara facing her “with a steely gaze” is “inert, grizzled, impassive”.

Paul Dibble (in collaboration with Athfield Architects) designed and executed the New Zealand Memorial in London, which was completed in 2006.