Art at work

TV was finally broadcasting seven nights a week, Ray Columbus & The Invaders' Till we Kissed won the Loxene Golden Disc Award, New Zealand joined the Americans in Vietnam and TEAL changed its name to Air New Zealand. In Wellington, 1965 was also the year that the ICI building, designed four years previously, was constructed as the first glass curtain wall building in the city. Modern plus. Perhaps as a sweetener for allowing the building to exceed the height limit of 25.6m by nearly 40 percent, Jim Allen was commissioned to create a mural for the foyer. The installed work is three abutting concrete panels, each around 7 x 3 meters. It’s acknowledged as the first of Allen’s publicly commissioned works, although his well-known Christ figure in John Scott’s Futuna Chapel was completed four years earlier. Thanks to the recent shake in Wellington, ICI House (now known as Deloitte) is to be demolished as soon as possible. Wellington City Council has offered its best efforts to save the mural although a recent statement noted that, 'the dangerous condition of the site means no one will be allowed to enter the building before demolition starts'.
 
Sources: Arch Centre and Scoop

One day in the architect’s office

Developer: We need some sort of art work for the foyer.

Architect: Why?

D: To make the place look classy.

A: (chilly) Right.

D: I’m thinking abstract but with a figurative feel to it.

A: You’re not seriously thinking of putting something over the polished concrete? Tell me you didn’t say that.

D: Maybe some sort of hanging thing…. A chandelier could be good?

A: (thinking quickly) No way the beams would carry the weight.

D: Really?  OK, sculpture then.

A: Yes …. a … sculpture … might … be ok. What sort of sculpture do you have in mind?

D: David.

A: I thought we’d been through this, I’m Crispin. David is the (withering) Project Manager.

D: No, David the sculpture.

A: Michelangelo’s David?

D: Maybe…is his one big and white?

A: Yes. Too big unfortunately.

D: I was only thinking of the top half. We don’t want equipment issues with the older tenants. Oh, and no arms. Cleaning issues.

A: The top half of Michelangelo’s David with no arms.

D: On a plinth.

And that is what they did.

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at it in the foyers of the world

Seconds

Just in case you think dropping the second post has stopped our love of the trivial, the weird, the did-you-see-that and the hilarious here is a omnibus edition of what we saw last week
Images: top to bottom, thinking about Tessa Laird in Te Kuiti, watching a couple of guys dismantling Choi Jeong Hwa's sculpture in the AAG foyer, spotting names on signs on the Auckland waterfront and haunting the foyers in search of art.

Art at work

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art at work

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art at work in the foyers of the world

Art in the workplace

Art hard at work in the foyers of the world