2AWA: Best Public Art

Here are the nom­i­nees for the Best Pub­lic Art cat­e­go­ry for the 2nd Annu­al Welling­ton­ista Awards (2AWA).

What is that?:

Art is what sep­a­rates Man from Beast (apart from those mon­keys with type­writ­ers who came up with the screen­play for Melody Rules, of course). There­fore it’s only fit­ting that we recog­nise the pub­lic art around the city that makes Welling­ton the colour­ful, vibrant place that it is. Of course, it’s a sub­jec­tive area, but these are the pieces that real­ly make us do dou­ble-takes as we move around.

(nom­i­nees after the jump)

A. Sky Blues [in Post Office Square]

Dur­ing the day it might resem­ble “pubic hair on chop­sticks” but at night when then neon tub­ing lights up and reflects off near­by build­ings the effect can be stun­ning. Part of the many items that are meant to lead folks away from Lambton Quay and to the water­front, Sky Blues has been a wel­come addi­tion to what was pre­vi­ous­ly a large flat traf­fic island.

B. Graffiti in the alley off Left Bank

This lit­tle alley-way has become known as the Left Bank Gallery, run­ning as it does between Ghuznee Street oppo­site Glover Park through to Cuba Street’s alter­na­tive shop­ping mec­ca, the Left Bank. Its walls host a mul­ti­tude of graf­fi­ti of vary­ing lev­els of qual­i­ty, from the most banal sprayed and mark­er’d tags through to whim­si­cal and beau­ti­ful paint­ings of great style and tech­nique; as well as a nice sam­pler of local sten­cil-art. Its ever-chang­ing walls reward repeat vis­its, and it is a use­ful primer on the artists that seek to change the face of our city armed only with stealth and a set of paints.

WINNER!!!
C. The installations along the way to the Airport

There’s a great big orange pointy thing which is actu­al­ly a zephy­rom­e­ter! There’s coloured cubes stacked on each oth­er that twirl in the wind! There’s a round­about full of fake reeds! While some of the Welling­ton­istas aren’t so fond of the Tow­er of Light (and judg­ing by the smash­ing van­dal­ism it attracts, nei­ther are Cob­ham Dri­ve’s boy rac­ers), the sculp­tures as a whole make an oth­er­wise ugly stretch of road sexy, and are a great intro­duc­tion for vis­i­tors to the vibran­cy of our beloved city.

D. Invisible City [The braille sculpture on Lambton Quay]

This sculp­ture, Invis­i­ble City, invites touch. There is mean­ing here, but it is hid­den to mun­dane peo­ple. Which is kind of iron­ic, because only those to whom most of the rest of the world is in shad­ow can actu­al­ly read it. (On the oth­er hand, we have heard that it does­n’t mean mean any­thing in Braille either.) And so it intro­duces a lit­tle bit of mys­tery into the suity hum­drum of Lambton Quay. Which is always a good thing.

E. Protoplasm (The “Pebbles” Wind Sculpture outside the Old Bank)

It may be called Pro­to­plasm if you read the plaque, but “Peb­bles” is more recog­nis­able if you are look­ing to meet some­one in town near­by it. This is anoth­er sculp­ture that only lives when Welling­ton is windy: its stacked discs twist and gyrate like some man­ic geek at the school dis­co. Proof once again that the wind, one of Welling­ton’s most polar­is­ing fea­tures, can be mid­wife to beau­ty as eas­i­ly as ruin your umbrel­la.

For a handy map of where to find these pieces, use the “best­pub­li­cart” tag on Zoomin. Vid­dy them before vot­ing opens on Novem­ber 19.