New Zealand dinosaur sculpture Boom Boom fuels debate

Some have called it an “eyesaur”. Many more have described it as “fabulous”.

But one word Boom Boom, a seven-metre tall stainless steel dinosaur sculpture in New Zealand, could never be associated with is “boring”.

Just days after the sauropod statue was installed in Taupō Sculpture Park, in the scenic centre of New Zealand’s North Island, Boom Boom has already prompted heated debate among locals.

The artist – and the team that commissioned it – say that’s exactly the point.

The mirror-finish sculpture was commissioned by the Taupō Sculpture Trust and created by Slovenian-born artist Gregor Kregar.

Kregar said that he wasn’t “particularly surprised” by the furore that quickly surrounded his work.

“Sculpture sometimes stops people from their everyday interactions with the world,” he told the BBC from his home in Auckland. “It’s really hard to hate a sculpture of a dinosaur.”

Still, public opinion on Boom Boom is split.

“Fantastic! Getting people talking about art. Broadening the conversation,” said one commenter on a social media post announcing Boom Boom’s arrival.

But another wrote: “Public investment of $100,000 from the local ratepayers, many of who would have rather seen the money spent elsewhere in the community.”

Funding for Boom Boom was finalised in 2018, before recent hikes in Taupō District Council’s rate which is similar to a council tax.

After several years of negotiations, the work was completed and installed in the park last week.

Others still criticised the work as having no connection with Taupō, named New Zealand’s most beautiful town in the 2023 Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards.

But Kregar said the rock that the dinosaur stands on is inspired by the volcanic history of the area.

Lake Taupō, from which the town takes its name, is a large caldera, a volcano that has collapsed in on itself. It last erupted around 1,800 years ago.

Sauropods, the inspiration for Boom Boom, are one of a few species of dinosaurs that paleontologists say lived in New Zealand.

They became extinct 66 million years ago, along with most other non-avian dinosaurs.

Kregar says the spirited debate around the sculpture means Boom Boom could eventually win round “the haters”.

“You put the sculpture out there, there is reaction, people start falling in love with it, and then it becomes something that they start embracing, part of the local identity,” he said.

Kim Gillies, secretary of the Taupō Sculpture Trust, told the BBC that the decision to commission Boom Boom was not taken “lightly”, but that it was chosen because “it would help put Taupō on the map”.

Gillies added that when it comes to the art, “safe is a bit boring, right?”

No bones about it.