Friday, August 03, 2012

The sky is falling

As part of the exhibition on the Wellington architect Ian Athfield the City Gallery has placed (although it's probably intended to look as though it has fallen) a section that might have come out of his own home on the hills above the harbour in Khandallah. Now a classic feature of Wellington it's hard to recall the hatred it attracted back in the 1960s and 1970s (building began in 1965). How Athfield must laugh now. 

This chunk of Athfield’s imagination in Civic Square also makes a vivid reference to the paintings of Brent Wong. Did Athfield riff off Wong or Wong off Athfield? It hardly matters, and great to see both sensibilities connect in this cast-off fragment.