Kaitaia town square plan boost after artist moots a shift of mosaic mural wall

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The mosaic mural walk has taken on a protest ambience. Photo / David Fisher

There is an emerging consensus on the mosaic tiles in the centre of Kaitaia that were becoming a barrier to development of the new town square.

Artist Jen Gay - who led the project 27 years ago - told the Age that she could see a future for the expansive artwork in a place different from that which is currently occupied.

Gay has also greeted with pleasure and relief the expression of a desire to save the mosaic mural by a key figure in the Kaitaia revitalisation project.

"It just needs to be made back into something that looks like it is now," said Gay, who had organised a protest last month to signal opposition to plans to remove the mural to make way for the town square.

When Kaitaia Business Association president Andrea Panther was told of this, she said: "That's exactly what we want to do - save the tiles. I totally get she doesn't want the tiles to disappear."

And Gay, told of Panther's desire to preserve the tiles, said: "That's amazing. I’m so pleased to hear that. I’m happy they do want to save it."

Gay organised and led the mural project in 1997 which involved schools in the area and hundreds of locals who handmade the ceramic tiles. She then created a concrete backing with steel reinforcing which was fixed to a concrete block wall.

All these years later, the mosaics continue to sparkle but the block wall is jaded and the plants within it are struggling to grow.

Of more direct concern, the long and low wall sits across an area intended to be an open entrance to a new town square intended to develop into an open-air dining area with car parking out the back on the former Pak’nSave site.

The kaupapa underpinning the plan was one of free-flowing open spaces with a huge waka artwork raised high at its centre.

When those behind Kaitaia's $7 million revitalisation plan carried out community consultation, the mosaic wall wasn't raised as an issue.

However, it was quickly raised when Gay became aware of the town square project and swiftly raised an alarm in the hope others would hear it.

And they did, with 40 people gathering in April in a newly-minted Save the Mosaic Mural campaign.

Since then, it has appeared as if the positions were intractable - yet great willingness was identified on both sides if the logistical challenge of getting the 500 tiles off the wall can be achieved.

The Age tracked down George Farrant, former Auckland Council principal heritage adviser who retired in 2019, three years after organising a vastly more complicated removal of tiles.

In that instance, there were about 47,000 tiles in a huge mosaic to be salvaged from Auckland's abandoned St James Theatre. They ranged in size from a few centimetres across to 20cm and were a collection of glass tiles, glazed tiles and porcelain tiles.

The mosaic was the product of architect Maurice Keith Smith in 1957 before moving to the United States where he spent decades mixing in world-leading architectural circles.

Farrant said the technique used was "fairly standard" but "tricky" yet entirely achievable.

At the St James, a fibreglass mesh was fixed across the front of the tiles as "a security to hold them in place in case any break".

Then, enormous "wet saws" were used - large saws that continually sprayed water to allow cutting through brick and concrete - to separate the tiles from the wall on which they sat with a few centimetres of concrete backing to hold the artwork together.

Farrant praised the demolition company - usually charged with destroying things - for the care and craft employed to remove the tiles. "They were like surgeons."

Farrant said the tiles were then bathed in a hydrochloric acid solution which dissolved the concrete but didn't damage the tiles.

Should such a feat - on a much smaller scale - be replicated in Kaitaia, there were a range of possibilities mooted for the mosaic from use in a town park to inclusion in other community facilities.

In Kaitaia, Panther said there was about $200,000 remaining of the $7m Provincial Growth Fund money with the town square as the final project on the list.

It should have been $300,000 but maintenance and repairs on other projects had eaten away at funding. There were plans afoot to secure more funding to realise the full town square vision.

Panther said the project should have started by now but was waiting on two things - final engineering plans and a resolution to the mosaic mural issue. Once under way and if all the equipment and supplies are secured for use, she said it should take about eight weeks to complete.

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