Public Art
For some of this so-called “summer” (I’m currently wearing a jumper and can barely hear myself think over the wind gusting down our driveway) we stayed home, and I got to play tourist with my brother and nephew visiting from other parts.
We three ziplined in the rain – it’s still terrific fun to fly through Waiheke bush even when it’s soggy – and the weather gods gave us a couple of calm sunny days to take in the sights of the city I’ve called home for the last 32 years.
It’s been a while since I’ve been up Auckland’s Sky Tower – first port of call for so many visitors – and I didn’t expect to be quite so enraptured. It’s not just the views from glass-enclosed lifts and down through glass floors (I don’t care how thick it is, that’s still a thrill), there’s also a place near the top where you can get ice cream, which we very much did.
But yes, the views. It’s a remarkable change of perspective, to see a city you know so well from an entirely different angle. A city built for its harbours, but also with a surprising amount of green space – luscious parks and long tree-lined streets showing a level of planning and order you don’t appreciate from a car or the bus.
It was fun finding favourite buildings – though why is it over there? - and spotting familiar pieces of public art like the fabulous gateway at the entrance to Albert Park. Chris Booth’s stone and steel cable sculpture with boulders stacked impossibly on top of each other is easily visible even this far away.
Down on Queen’s Wharf, we also spot Michael Parekowhai’s “The Lighthouse / Tū Whenua-a-Kura”, a replica Kiwi state house that I see so often when I’m sailing in or out of Auckland for work on a cruise ship. I love that house, especially at night when it’s lit up within with neon lights representing the constellations.
We see it at ground level, too. The Disney Wonder cruise ship was in port and my nephew was keen to see it, and we took the chance to peek through “The Lighthouse” windows where you discover a larger-than-life polished sculpture of Captain Cook sitting contemplatively on a stool.
I love public art. It’s a grown-up, positive, optimistic thing to do, to place beautiful, bizarre, challenging and delightful things in our parks and streets.
On the bus back from MOTAT my nephew spotted the John Radford sculptures in Ponsonby’s Western Park – old facades of buildings either sinking into or rising out the earth, depending on how you see it.
At lunch on another day, we’d all been delighted with “Sounds of Sea” in Wynyard Quarter – those big, shiny, silver ship funnels you can talk into. Functional and funny, as well as beautiful.
My local council – and no doubt yours – buddy up with various stakeholders to make public art happen. There will be private trusts and donors involved, mana whenua included, and artists part of the team.
When I hear talk that local government should limit themselves to infrastructure and basic services, I worry we might lose things that make a city beautiful. Though I believe that public art – alongside libraries and swimming pools – are actually “basic services”.
Some people can afford art in their houses, but all of us deserve fascinating things to look at in shared spaces, and to live and work in culturally vibrant neighbourhoods we can enjoy and feel proud of. Even when summer is late to arrive.