“We were collecting one of the Formica dining sets from a family in Caromb, a small town just south of Mont Ventoux. The title of the work comes from one of the tables. He found the colourful tables and chairs in flea markets and at attic sales near his studio in the south of France. And now the bull is back – standing strong in its permanent home at Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery, welcoming visitors to our reopening exhibitions.īill Culbert made Bebop for a corridor in an old church in Venice, Santa Maria della Pietà, when he represented New Zealand at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Over the past year, we’ve shown it at a number of sites around the city as part of the Gallery's Outer Spaces programme, including Worcester Boulevard, Placemakers Riccarton, New Regent Street, and most recently at Christchurch International Airport.

It travelled to Christchurch after being shown at the Musée de quai Branly in Paris.

Subsequently, a public fundraising campaign kept the bull in Christchurch.Ĭhapman’s Homer was first exhibited in Venice, where Parekowhai represented New Zealand at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Of nature and a dynamic work of culture, Chapman’s Homer resonated with local audiences.

At once strong and refined, a brutal force Over thirty days, Parekowhai’s work caught the public imagination as a symbol of the resilience of local people. Our bull stood beside his seated brother while a red carved Steinway piano was played upstairs in an adjacent building. When 'Chapman’s Homer' was exhibited at the edge of the devastated central city in 2012, it was positioned between ruin and rebuild just outside the cordon in an empty lot on Madras Street.

Chapman's Homer by Homer