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