Sculpture Garden
This is one of my favourite places in Wellington:
... and if anyone ever tries to do it harm, as I've heard rumours of happening in the past, well... they just better watch out.
Sorry for the crappy photo. Stupid phone. Looks like I also managed to catch a flying rat in full, uh, flight.
It wasn't for a carpark - it was for what was supposed to be a new wing of parliament - That Bolger was planning
Looks like the flying rat is looking to Stuka the picnic. Nice shot.
(edited) The site of the sculpture garden is the site of the former Broadcasting House, torn down a number of years ago. It was the home of Radio NZ, and housed (probably) THE best sound recording studios in NZ -- and it sucks BIG TIME that it got torn down.
But shit happens.
And the sculpture garden is tres luvverly. Sometimes, if you're lucky, some very good can come out of the very bad.
@Che: I dunno if you know, but the sculptures are supposed to represent the lifestyle and so on of the pre-European inhabitants of that spot, which pre-reclamation was pretty much the foreshore. So there's (from memory) the seabird, the root vegetable, and the canoe-thing. Idyllic, huh.
And if you go up to them and kinda play with them a bit and check them out, you really gotta say: "These are really awesome things".
At least, I do.
Close Stephen, the waka, the cairn and the bird.
but everyone who works near there (as I once did) calls them the club, the banana and the hairdryer.
Broadcasting house used to stand there. I never went there, but my workmates at RNZ are still lamenting the loss. Apparently it was beautiful, with great studios, and the only reason for tearing it down was that the government of the time were uncomfortable with RNZ being so close to parliament. And the rubble vegetables are just plain ugly.
The Beehive Annex used to be there too, I worked there for 2 years, downstairs from Ministerial Services & the Alliance.
@Kirsten -- Awwwwwwww I can't believe you think they're ugly :(( To me, they are brilliant forms, as well as having that "how did they do it" x-factor: how did he (the sculptor Brett whassisname) get the bird's beak to extend out so far past the centre of gravity on one side; how did he get the cairn to be so tall and so top heavy yet so graceful; how can the ends of the waka rise so damn far above the horizontal and yet still retain its structural and visual integrity?
The two site-related plans I have heard over the years...
1. turn it into a carpark
2. move the Beehive there and finish the original south wing of the Parliament building.
Stoopid humans.
You know what's cool about this? Well, I was trying to work out its location. The photo makes it look like it's in some large, old isolated public garden, maybe with some historic building in the distance.
Then I thought about it, and went to Google Maps and realised that - OMG - it's right next to Parliament.
Regardless of what used to be there, those sculptures are really cool. I want to feeeel them plz.
find some brickwork in auckland.
that said though, stephen is right on. it is a nice spot. the only downside is the massive panopticon next store.
i *always* feel like i'm being watched when i scurry past it.
i will admit, despite my earlier far too grumpy post, which i deleted, that it was amazing watching them being built.
and i shall try to not be angry or sad but focus on the shiny next time i visit there
Kinda? Gotta? Hate "on" something?
Don't think I'll bother taking aesthetic advice from you, Stephen, thanks all the same, until you learn to appreciate (and speak) educated English.
I don't think Stephen will be taking your criticisms to heart until you learn to post with your name. Not to put words in his mouth or anything.
@Anonymouse: what the hell??? Since when does appreciation of (public) sculpture have anything to do with written English skills?
Wanna elaborate?
the waka, the cairn and the bird?
I thought it was the handle of a taiaha, the tail of a whale and the thingie that you tie boats to. Sorry, i'm no boatee - that word didn't come to mind. Can anyone verify what they represent - it's nice to know for sure since i walk past there every work day/
Halyard?
It's neat that someone can come up with 3 completely different interpretations of the forms. I like it.
@Hadyn, yeah -- there was no way I could not have something not reflected in the window glass (without shifting everything around -- and I'd only just left the security briefing and I didn't want anyone to think I was teh oarsome spy) (sorry about the spelling there, Anonymouse), and I rather liked the ephemeral pot-plant look.
One of the people I worked with when I working in the beehive used to call it the sex toy garden...
Here is a 360 panorama of Statue Square. The statues in it are great, and I loved coming across them when in Wellington.
you know, when i first got back to wellington i spent ages trying to figure out what in the hell the third edible was?
you got a banana, a carrot, and... mutant broccoli?