Missing you already

Last week Wellington had one of the highest director and curator counts in town for years. They were all here for the three day One Day Sculpture symposium. It also gave us a chance to learn a few of the rules of One Day sculpture. You can’t have a One Day Sculpture inside a public art gallery, there can only be one One Day Sculpture happening on any one day. That sort of thing.

Saturday’s ODS was Less is Moore by Billy Apple. So when we heard that Apple was going to launch his work at midnight, we figured that if Billy (at age 73) could get himself up to the Botanic Garden at that hour, so could OTN.

Sure enough, as the new day kicked off at one second past twelve Billy, Mary and their dog Macintosh Apple turned up. A small audience including Tina Barton and Laura Preston from the Adam Art Gallery and curator Andrew Clifford, stood around and watched Billy’s billboard being shifted into place and then revealed. It was quite a moment and a good starter to a conversation on both of what public sculpture can be and the role of the artist’s own intentions. On the billboard Billy Apple has called for the Wellington City Council to front up to its responsibilities and look after Bronze Form. The work has clearly been mistreated and needs some serious work done on it.

It was strangely compelling to see the Henry Moore being made the centre of attention that night. The organisers of One Day Sculpture, visiting and local Institutional curators, staff and students of the Massey School of Fine Arts, knowing they had a tough day ahead of them sitting in a seminar, all gave it a miss.
Images: Billy Apple revealing Less is Moore.