Flour Power

In 2008, just when Coeliac and gluten awareness was taking a grip on the western world, Christchurch hoisted up a huge monument to the forbidden grain, wheat.

This is a sculpture by Wellington-based Regan Gentry was funded by the City Council and and the Stewart family via the Public Art Advisory Group, which had a good run at beautifying the city before the earthquakes gave rise to other priorities. The simple message hidden in the giant sheaf of wheat was simple homage to horticulture and cropping that were Canterbury's original fortune makers. This was against a backdrop of the plains turning to other types of farming, and the burgeoning growth of the Garden City itself.

Flour Power stands 13 metres tall and illuminated at night upon the site of the former Stewart Fountain. The new Public Art Board is called Scape.