Nooooo, you’re doing it all wrong ! Michael Tuffery, esteemed sculptor, visual artist, creator of giant kina nesting on the side of the seabed by the Kumutoto stream – surely you’ve got it all wrong?!
Two points that spring rapidly to mind – firstly – this should be underwater, and not showing out above the waves as this picture by glasnevinz today shows it! All wrong!
And secondly – you’ve depicted it dead! I know that kina are beautiful in their reduced-to-a-skeleton form, but that’s not really what they are about. They’re spiky, for gods sake, as spiky as a spiky thing in spiky town. The sort of spiky that gets into your foot when you’re in jandals wading on the foreshore! The sort of spiky that stops you tearing open their fragile bodies and eating the soft orange mass of their swollen gonads. Yuck. I can’t believe I just wrote that – but you know what I mean. The green – they’re dead! They’re plucked! They’re bald!
And thirdly – their whole charm is that they are small! Tiny, delicate wee creatures, the size of your thumbnail, or the palm of your hand, not 7500 kilos.
Post-script edit, following the dropping of one of the kina yesterday….
Here’s a thought. Perhaps this is a reference not simply to the life aquatic, but to human interaction with the foreshore. It’s a midden, the leftovers from a tasty and sustaining feast on the beach.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington-central/7922811/Crane-mishap-as-giant-Kina-moved-in
If they dropped one, shouldn’t it be smashed open and ooozing slime?
Maybe it’s a cautionary tale – stop polluting the sea water or we’re going to end up with giant, bald, mutant sea creatures?
I reckon they are creative cool i catching and interesting, they enhance the ever growing outdoor art gallery that is Welly – town. And are way more interesting than whatever low cost concrete tilt up will be plonked in the background.
Diverse, Fun, A lil in your face – Welly.
I confess I do not know how a kina works. Their spikey legs move, presumably? Do they have eyes and a nose and a mouth? And a bum? where are these thigs? Onnatop? Or all onabottom? It stores the roe – the sea-egg sperm / eggs in big orange mounds of slime on the inside of its shell? How the heck does that work? How do they mate? And what is that horrible pink fleshy thing waving in the middle ? (not the one in the green jersey, but the bit behind him…)? Does anyone know?
There is something new being built next to the Free Ambulance hut between Te Papa and Mac’s Brewbar. I think it might be a set of spirally steps leading up to a high diving board. Or it might be something else… I’ve given up trying to work out what things are going to be using Google.
Zifferelli – I don’t know either. Are you trying to say they’re just a set of bollocks, all full of sperm, loudly on display?
Other – thank you. I’m sure you’re right.
Davidp – yep, they’re a diving board for people diving into the “cutout” – just in time for summer.
Wellington Waterfront has been highly commended in the inaugural urban design awards.
The council-controlled organisation has been praised by the award jury for working over many years to create a publicly accessible waterfront. Like many port cities, Wellington faced the issue of changing shipping practices and the consequent redundant sites at the city’s edge. The progressive development of this huge area was the product of a sustained effort by Wellington Waterfront and its many consultants, with strong input from the community, the jury said in its citation.
”The waterfront is a series of spaces, moving from the more dense commercial uses with established streets and well-defined public access at the northwest, to the more relaxed and informal open spaces to the southeast.
”Along the way are a series of places and spaces with a variety of uses. Water has been reintroduced into parts of the site and a range of uses introduced including major public infrastructure, Te Papa being the most notable.
The strong input from the community most frequently consisted of the community working to stop what the waterfront company wanted to do. Remember: Wellington Waterfront (when it was known as Lambton Harbour Management) wanted to build six storeys of town houses and carparking buildings on Waitangi Park. They wanted twin towers on either side of the Taranaki Street gates. They wanted to line the street edge of Frank Kitts Park with buildings. And do they really claim credit for Te Papa?
How did you segue from kina to awards?
I still think development on waitangi park may have been the better option. It’s too far away from the cbd for everyday use and consequently spends a lot of time relatively vacant. I would have preferred to see development there and a greater park space opened up and redeveloped nearer to the cbd instead, possibly around where frank kitts is now (but larger). Both parks are currently under utilised.
There’s a lot of development that can still take place around Waitangi Park, which will increase its usage. Particularly huge potential for residential development between Cable St and Wakefield St. And of course there are a few buildings yet to be built around the park edge itself, I’m hanging out to see the John Wardle building built (if it ever gets built): http://www.wellingtonwaterfront.co.nz/development/waitangi/waitangi_park_introduction/design_competitionprecinct_/visuals_john_wardle_pty_ltd_architects_design/index.htm
Lindsay – how did i segue from kina to awards? Cos the kina are on the waterfront…. and i didn’t want to do a whole new post at 4am when i checked the news….
But in defense of WWL – and i haven’t known them for as long as you have, but one of the reasons it has a different name now, than it did then, is because it is a different organisation – you must have met the CEO, Mr Pike – you can’t go wrong in my books if you’re named after a Fish – and he’s a really nice guy from what I can gather, not a malicious bone in his body, and certainly no desire to ring Waitangi Park with a girdle of town houses.
I’m impressed that you surface at 4am to check the news. You’re much more diligent than me.