Pine Man – Tokoroa

The timber has a provenance, which is rare for a sculpture and entirely appropriate here. The wood is New Zealand Pinus radiata, and the pole it was made from came from Pohuturoa, just south of Tokoroa. Radiata pine originates in California, where it grows in a few small coastal stands; brought to New Zealand it grows extraordinarily well, and the enormous plantation forests of the central North Island – Kaingaroa above all – made Tokoroa. The town exists because of the mill.

So the sculpture is a forestry worker, carved from a local tree, of a species imported from California, standing in the town that timber built. Every part of it is the industry.

He belongs to the Talking Poles, a collection of carved pole sculptures through the town centre that together tell Tokoroa's story. When the CBD was redeveloped the nearby poles were relocated; the Pine Man stayed where he was.

That is a small distinction with some meaning. Of everything in the collection, the figure of the worker was the one left in place.

Radiata pine also explains why the sculpture will not last indefinitely. It is a soft, fast-grown timber, valued for exactly that, and a figure made of it outdoors needs continuing treatment in a way a hardwood carving would not.