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Boy Walking by Ronnie van Hout
Ronnie van Hout

Boy Walking

"A larger-than-life, brightly coloured boy walks with purpose, adding colour and energy to Potters Park."

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Description

Boy Walking by Ronnie van Hout depicts a larger-than-life child strolling with purpose and explores the notion of a child transitioning toward adulthood. Towering above the streetscape of Dominion Road, the figure wears bright shorts and a bold t-shirt and walks confidently with a determined stride, head up, focused, with an assured smile.

The inspiration for the sculpture was drawn from the artist’s 1995 Mephitis series of black and white photographic prints, which are currently held in the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. Mephitis depicts figures moving from outside to inside, and finally into abstraction. One of these photographs, a single figure of a child walking through a New Zealand landscape into an interior, has remained with the artist.

Van Hout says he felt ready to bring the concept to life, as in many ways he understands the walking figure better now. “The act of moving forward, and the developmental position of the child are both positions of constant transition, or of permanent becoming. It is the suspension of arrival or a delaying of the end.”

“The figure seemed so self-determined and forceful, and that appealed to me,” says van Hout. “In literal terms this is an eleven or twelve-year-old child, but it could be anyone. We’re all constantly becoming. We’re always learning. Always moving forward.”

Location

Potters Park, Dominion Road, Balmoral

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