Phil Dadson Sculpture

WELLINGTO, NEW ZELAND - Ten years and $750,000 in the making and Wellington's wind sculpture series is finally complete.

Phil Dadson's Akau Tangi has been unveiled on Cobham Dr, taking its place alongside the four other pieces in the Meridian Wellington Wind Sculpture series: Pacific Grass, Tower of Light, Urban Forest and Zephyrometer.

His sculpture is made up of 10 painted steel poles topped with moving metal cones shaped like windsocks. The cones move with the wind and make sounds in certain wind directions.

Wellington Sculpture Trust chairman Neil Plimmer said Dadson's work was "a huge feat of engineering, as well as of art".

"We are equally celebrating the completion of the whole series - it's been nearly $1 million and 10 years coming, and this is the fifth and final one."

Mr Plimmer said the wind sculptures had quickly become landmarks on Wellington's coastal road. "People just assume you know where the Zephyrometer is."

The combined price tag of about $750,000 was a steal for five such striking artworks, he said.

"If we commissioned the early ones now, we wouldn't get them for anything like that."

Dadson is a Napier-born multimedia artist known for his work as a composer, experimental instrument builder and performer.