Chapman’s Homer is an imposing life-sized bronze and stainless steel sculpture of a black bull standing on top of a black grand piano. His legs are planted firm and wide, one front hoof set forward as if he’s about to charge. His tail flicks up, and his huge head, with its sharp horns and flared nostrils, looms over anyone sitting on the piano’s stool.

This powerful work was created in 2011 by Michael Parekōwhai (of the iwi Ngā Ariki Rotoawe and Ngāti Whakarongo), one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most acclaimed contemporary artists. Chapman’s Homer was purchased by the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū Foundation in 2013, following a large-scale community fundraising campaign. It was the first of the ‘Five Great Works’ acquired to mark each year that the Gallery building was closed after the 2010–11 Canterbury earthquakes.      

Chapman’s Homer takes its name from part of the title of a John Keats poem that considers the emotional power of a great work of art. At 1.8 tonnes, the sculpture weighs as much as two adult bulls. The distance from the front edge of the piano stool to the far edge of the piano and the tip of bull’s tail is 2.7 metres. The piano is 2.1 metres wide. The highest part of the sculpture is the bull’s curved back, just under 1.8 metres above the ground. The work stands on a section of black gravel set into the lawn in front of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. You reach this via three shallow, wide paved steps. A sign on the grass near the sculpture says, “You are welcome to sit on the stool, but for the safety of yourself and the artwork do not climb on the bull or piano.”

Moving clockwise around the sculpture, you can touch the straight lines of the piano, then the back hooves of the bull. If you reach up, you will feel the animal’s bunched leg muscles and tail. A little higher, you will find an impressive pair of dangling testicles. Moving to the front of the piano, you can trace the ripples of skin where the bull’s wide, muscular neck bends and his jaw folds in and under, supporting the great head. Note that the bull’s horns and tail are at head height, so take care. If you want to sit on the piano stool, watch out for water on its padded seat if it has been raining. The piano lid is closed. Above it, the nose and flared nostrils of the bull almost touching the upright music stand. The lowered horns are pale grey metal, transitioning to a shade of bronze at their tapered, sharp ends. The sculpture is a soft, dark matte black with a slight sheen, especially when it is sunny or wet, or when the spotlights above the sculpture reflect off it at night. The bronze is hard to the touch. The work can be warm, even hot, when it is bathed in sunshine, and cool when shadows are cast across it.

Chapman’s Homer is one of the Gallery’s most treasured works of art and has become a symbol of the resilience and strength of the people of Ōtautahi Christchurch.