Transformer

This four-sided stone pillar is made up of 25 stone blocks in alternating layers, forming a pattern or code similar to the lines of a barcode. With its pyramid-shaped peak, Transformer provides a landmark for the adjoining Japanese garden, helping to draw people in. It also provides a visual connection when looking at the garden from the Henderson Train Station overbridge. The layered stones of this sculpture reflect the layering used in elements of the Japanese garden.

This sculpture is intended to be viewed alongside the artist's nearby basalt rock, Red Cross. At first glance the pillar and the rock appear as very different things, but Edgar draws our attention to their similarities, and how something large-scale will eventually reduce to dust or sand. This reflects his fascination with long-term geological processes.

These two artworks are related through their use of common materials, but also complement each other through contrast; one has a hard, formal structure, the other is softer and more accessible. Transformer was commissioned by Waitākere City Council in 2006 for the new Waitākere Civic Centre, followed by Red Cross which was unveiled in June 2008.

"I wanted to provide a link or intermediary between the human scale and the surrounding built environment… I wanted to come up with something greater than the human scale but less intimidating than a building," says Edgar of Transformer. "It is an expression of a modern digital code embedded in stone, but it could equally be an ancient core from the earth showing the sedimentary layers and revealing geological events from the past."