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Gibbs Hill Farm and the valley of the Caw Burn, Photo by Oliver Dixon-
Top 10 Unknown Facts about Gibbs Farm, New Zealand
Gibbs farm is one of the most famous beautiful sculpture parks. It is in Kaipara harbor which is 47 kilometers north of Auckland New Zealand. The property is a wonderland of sculptured art.
It was started in the early1990s by Allan Gibbs a millionaire entrepreneur and businessman in New Zealand. Gibbs happened to be a great art collector so he bought the land. He purchased over 700 acres of hills, fields, and wood that he wanted to transform into a park.
He later organized the entire facility and invited some of the world鈥檚 greatest artists to decorate his new park as they pleased. Some of the famous artists that got the chance were Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor, Bernar Venet, and Leon van den Ejikel. An entire army of artists from different parts of the world came together to turn this place into a surreal world, what is present-day Gibbs farm.
Allan Gibbs’s farm has exciting features. Learn more about the farm with these ten hidden realities about the Gibbs farm in New Zealand.
1. Allan Gibbs is the founder and owner of Gibbs farm
Allan Gibbs is a successful entrepreneur and businessman in New Zealand. He is also a passionate art collector with almost 30 years of collecting art. He bought the Kaipara property where Gibbs farm is currently located in 1991.
He aimed to transform it into a park. He chose to deal with the artists directly and commissioned new works rather than buying from an exhibition. Which later led to a whole new art collection for Mr. Gibbs and proved to be very successful.
He had great satisfaction working with artists. He viewed them as interesting, winners, tough, and ambitious people. That is how he described his experience while working with an artist in creating Gibbs farm. It’s one of the world’s most famous sculptured parks.
2. Architect Noel Lane Helped the Artists Decorate Gibbs Farm
Lane was a major architect of the Gibbs farm project with help from a team of skilled engineers. Noel and Gibbs worked together to amass a collection of outdoor sculptures of a scale rarely seen.
3. The Gibbs farm project’s major challenge was the scale of the landscape
Pond at Gibbs Hill Farm, Photo by Mike Quinn-
Allan Gibbs admitted the scale of the landscape scared many artists at the beginning. This resulted in artwork inclined to the landscape which was dominated by Kaipora harbor. One of the largest harbors in the southern hemisphere and its body of water increases the properties sense of scale.
The harbor occupies the western horizon and has a shallow depth. The display of works began on land and eventually towards the sea. In some way, over the years every artwork has maintained a slide seaward.
4. Gibbs farm is the best place to experience gravitational-defying art pieces
The Dismemberment sculpture designed by artist Anish Kapoor found in the Gibbs farm, New Zealand, Photo by Nita-
While walking through the beautiful land of Gibbs farm you get the first-hand encounter of gravitational pull. It is exerted on everything on the property.
A good example is the gravitational defying floating compression of the artist Kenneth Snelson. Another is Tony Oursler鈥檚 mud opera grasping the final return of all the matter to the primordial ooze. More art pieces are proof of the Gibbs farm conquering the gravitational laws.
5. There was a near disaster during the development of artworks present on Gibbs farm
Everything on the Gibbs farm required artists to stretch their capacities beyond what they had ever created. Most of the artworks were the biggest creations the artists had ever come up with at the time. This was a challenge to the creatives that almost caused tragedy to the project.
A perfect case was the artist Richard Serra’s 56 computer-designed plates. Each weighed eleven tons and was to be shipped from Germany. The plates were designed to only be stacked up to ten plates high.
The ship’s crew ignored the directive and on their sail, the plates fell off almost drowning the ship. Thus the plates had to be redesigned for easy transportation which almost took one year.
6. Gibbs farm has exotic animals
The Gibbs farm is celebrated for its magnificently sculptured art. Yet there is also the presence of exotic animals covering around 200 hectares of the land. Animals such as giraffes, buffalos, zebras, the alpaca, and emu can be cited.
7. The Kaipara southern harbor is in the Gibbs farm
The Gibbs farm is a 1000 hectors landscape that is dominated by Kaipara harbor. It ranks among the Southern hemisphere’s largest harbors. The harbor is vast and the water is very shallow. When the tides go out the shallows are exposed for several kilometers and light shimmers and bounces of it. It is a spectacular sight to watch.
8. Gibbs farm is free to visit
Informal pond at Gibbs Hill Farm, Photo by Mike Quinn-
Gibbs farm is private property, open monthly by owners on reservation terms. It’s open to artists’ education, institutions, charities, and the public. There is no fee charged for visiting Gibbs farm.
9. Horizon was among the earliest sculptures commissioned for the Gibbs farm
Horizon Sculpture by artist Neil Dawson, Photo by Nita-
Neil Dawson is the artist behind the horizon. This sculpture is synonymous with a doodle of a curved piece of paper blown by the wind from the top of a hill. It is a flat sculpture made of iron that creates the fantasy of being three-dimensional. Horizon and the dismemberment from Anish Kapoor are among the most famous pieces of art sculpture on the Gibbs farms.
10. Gibbs farm took 20 years to have 29 artists’ works
The Gibbs farm took 20 years to be completed and approved a total of 29 artists to create their biggest and best artwork. The artists were well paid for their creativity.
The Gibbs farm is a fascinating place to visit while you’re in New Zealand. It is a chance to admire sculptured art and see a few exotic creatures. It opens once a month to the public based on prior appointments and it is free to access.
It’s about a four-hour comfortable view of all the splendid artwork on foot. There are so many fun things to look forward to when visiting the Gibbs farm. Above are the ten little-known certainties about Gibbs farm.
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