Chalice Sculpture, Christchurch

While a student at Hastings Boys' High School in New Zealand, Francis Neil Dawson launched his art career by painting "April Fool" in white on the roof of the school. Years later he climaxed his penchant for art in public places by creating The Chalice, an enormous, upside down metallic cone in Cathedral Square in Christchurch.

Dawson's forte is optical illusions assisted by the use of patterns, like moire. The Chalice, also called The Millennium Cone, is a steel and aluminum sculpture. It was commissioned for the 150th anniversary of Christchurch and Canterbury by the Canterbury Association in 2001.

The sculpture is of aluminum on a hexagonal steel framework. Forty-two aluminum leaves of native plants are woven through the honeycombed steel. The native tree species represented are Mapou, Kowhai, Mahoe, Totara, Karamu, Titoki, Maratata and Koromiko. The Cone is 59 feet high. The base diameter is 6.5 feet. Top diameter is 28 feet.

The base of the sculpture is dark granite with a diameter of ten feet. The cone is painted silver on the outside and blue inside. At night it may be lighted inside and out.