Big Golf Ball – Te Poi

A golf ball is the most abstract thing in the group and the hardest to account for. Dairy explains the cow. The pub's own signature dish explains the burger. National sentiment, loosely, explains the kiwi. A golf ball explains nothing at all, unless there is a course nearby or a story attached that has not been written down.

It is also, from a maker's point of view, the easiest object in the entire tradition to build well. A sphere in concrete needs no likeness, no proportions and no anatomy – only a smooth surface and the dimples. It is entirely possible the golf ball exists because it was a satisfying thing to make rather than because it meant anything, and that is a perfectly good reason.

What the group demonstrates collectively is a maker with access to concrete, a publican with space, and no particular editorial policy. Very few Big Things sites have that.

Current listings confirm the tavern is operating. The ball's date, size and rationale are all unrecorded.

The moa are the detail that lingers. Three of them, kept indoors, in a country pub – a sculpture of an extinct bird made in concrete by a man who was mostly making cows.