Falling Water by Fred Graham (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui), 1970

The Falling Water sculpture has been in the city since 1970 and in July 2021, it moved to its new home - the Palmerston North Conference & Function Centre.

This cultural landmark was first commissioned in 1970 by Betty and Bill Clarke. The Clarkes were building the Modernist-inspired Alpha Motor Inn on the corner of Broadway and Victoria Avenue at the time and commissioned artist friends to create artworks for it. Amongst them was Fred Graham CNZM (Ngāti Korokī Kahukura, Tainui) Māori All Black, artist and teacher.

Falling Water is the first metal sculpture created by Fred Graham, one of the pioneers of the Contemporary Māori Art Movement that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. This movement drew inspiration from two distinct artistic traditions, customary Māori art and European Modernism, the influences of which can be seen in the form of this work.

The sculpture he created was a working water feature made up of seven copper forms attached to a fibro-cement backboard.

Water coming out of the circular spouts symbolises small streams, which flow together into a river, embodied by the copper trough with five semi-circular spouts. And as Fred Graham states, “of the many features on the river, perhaps the most impressive is the waterfall”, represented by water spilling over the bottom edge of the sculpture.

Source: Facebook - Placemaking Palmerston North and Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand