Artist to redesign Greenmarket square 'swaaipomp'

A STATUE to be constructed in Greenmarket Square, meant to be a modern interpretation of a 19th century "swaaipomp" (traditional hand pump), has been rejected by Heritage Western Cape as it would allegedly obstruct the old town house with its proportions.

The artist has been instructed to redesign the sculpture to less than half its current height.

Statue designer Mark O'Donovan said he was told to redesign the structure, changing it from two linked structures to one and to reduce it to half its original size.

The original sculpture was to consist of two parts - a compass with a water wheel inside which collected water and emptied it into a trough, illuminated by lights at night. The highest point of the structure was a 5.5m stainless steel vertical column.

The "swaaipomp" was used to pump fresh water from a reservoir into buckets for domestic use in the '0s.

O'Donovan is an engineer at a Cape Town-based company, ODD Enjinears, and created sculptures at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock and the Woodmill Shopping Centre in Knysna.

O'Donovan said the Built Environment and Landscape Committee (Belcom) of Heritage Western Cape had rejected the drawing during a meeting at Protea House on January 21, saying they objected to "having anything in front of the old town house" in Greenmarket Square, as well as the size of the structure.

He said it was "illogical" to reject the idea of the structure as it was meant to attract people to the town house, not detract from it.

Landscape architect at Urban Design, Sonette Smit, said the cost of the sculpture would come out of the capital budget of R4 million set aside to upgrade the square, which was expected to be complete by the end of June.

Assistant director at Heritage Western Cape Calvin van Wijk said they could not comment on reasons for the rejection as "the minutes of the meeting would be confirmed at the next meeting", to take place on February 11.

# It is believed some of the cobblestones in the square had to be relaid after the city was criticised for poor workmanship. "Cobbles never provide a completely smooth and even surface. However, there are a few cobbles which stand too proud and the city is providing the contractor the opportunity to rectify this," said Smit.

Cape Times

Posted at 09:19AM Feb 04, 2010 by Editor in Commercial  |