The Gibbs Farm: a Wonderland of Sculpture

Imagine walking through a park and suddenly seeing 20 massive colorful cubes raising from the ground. Or, seeing a red trumped-shaped object of a few dozen feet long placed at the top of a hill! Although, it feels very much like Alice in Wonderland, this place is as real as it gets and it’s right in Auckland, New Zealand.

Alan Gibbs is a millionaire entrepreneur and businessman from New Zealand, who also happens to be a great art collector. At the beginning of the ’90s, Gibbs decided to have a land of art of his own. So, in 1991, he purchased over 700 acres of hills, fields and woods, that he wanted to turn into a park.

He arranged the entire place and invited some of the world’s most famous artists to decorate his new park exactly as they pleased. Some of them were: Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor, Bernar Venet and Leon van den Eijkel. An entire army of artists worldwide gathered to turn this rich man’s place into a seemingly surreal world. And so they did.

One of the most well-known pieces from the park is called “Horizons”. The sculpture, created by Neil Dawson, is very similar to a doodle of a curved piece of paper, blowing in the wind from the
top of a hill. When observed from the distance, it seems three-dimensional, but in fact it’s not. It is a flat sculpture made of iron, that successfully creates the illusion of being three dimensional.

However, this is only one of the many art treasures located at the Gibbs Farm. At every few step, there is yet another surprising sculpture to admire, that astonishes visitors. Unfortunately, the giant park is currently a private property. Visitors can get access to it only by appointment, but the views are definitely worth it!

Photo credit: gibbsfarm.org.nz