Anti-climb paint applied to Garden Place sculpture

A special anti-climb paint will this week be applied to Te Tiaho O Matariki, the Pleiades-themed 12-metre sculpture in Garden Place.

Community Group Business Manager Helen Paki said people had taken to climbing the sculpture, and Council was concerned if this continued someone could be hurt.

The paint, Resene Sentinel, is being applied by artist Neil Miller tomorrow (8 March), and is a deterrent in the interests of public safety. The product is designed to never dry and is lanolin-based.

The paint will be applied from two metres up the sculpture, and although it is invisible, it will be sticky and mark the clothing and hands of anyone who touches it.

“We’d like people to enjoy the sculpture, and debate its value, but we would prefer they stay off it,” Ms Paki says.

A bronze name plaque for the sculpture will also be installed in April.