Thief

This humorous, small-scale installation by Tanja McMillan (street artist and illustrator also known as Misery) in collaboration with John Oz, features a little boy fighting with a piglet over a turnip. The sculpture is designed to appeal to children walking along Karangahape Road.

Thief is inspired by the history of the area, when the street was lined with fruit and vegetable shops and surrounded by fields filled with farm animals. The small bronze is one of a pair of works that draw on K' Road’s history as fertile farmland, and later, as a busy shopping district filled with department stores. McMillan calls herself a character artist and describes her works as little self-portraits.

The little boy shown in Thief has features commonly found in Japanese art and anime, one of the artist’s inspirations. And next to him lies a hatchet, another symbol often seen in the Auckland artist’s drawings. Thief was installed on K' Road outside Lim Chhour Supermarket in 2015. It is one of two sculptures commissioned for the K' Road neighbourhood, with Twist across the road, outside the entrance to St Kevins Arcade.