City to Sea Bridge, Wellington. April 2009. Ajr I don’t know how many times I’ve driven UNDER Wellington’s City to Sea Bridge but today, for the first time ever, I walked OVER it. I’ve always admired the glimpses I’ve had of Para Matchitt’s sculptures and now I can safely say, they’re even better up close. Matchitt, a Hawke’s Bay-based contemporary Maori artist, created the works in 1993. This is a detail of one of the wooden works. I’ll bring you the best of them here on Monday morning.
I love this bridge and I love how Wellington has built it's waterfront out. I remember how dismal it used to be.
ReplyDeleteActually I distinctly remember discussing this with the (former) CEO of Compaq Computers. We were at a dinner in Wellington one night and we got into a discussion about the Civic square and the bridge. The main road was a tricky problem because it cut off the city from the waterfront park (this is also a problem in Toronto and they have not solved it).
He thought it was ugly and I explained to him that the bridge is the prow of a canoe, a waka.
He did not believe me, so got up from the restaurant and walked through the square and up to the bridge. I explained how the square is the body and the buildings formed the hull, and the bridge is decorated as the prow of the boat (stylized of course).
The whole Civic Center is designed to lead people over into the park as an embark point.
Mmmmmm..... I thought it was a whale?
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