Bond Street impasto

Bond Street impasto #619 (28 May 2016)

Bond Street impasto #620 (28 May 2016)

Bond Street back story

Between January and April 2015, Bond Street [in Wellington, New Zealand] was transformed with temporary changes to the way the street looked and was used to bring colour and energy to the area.

Bond Street is an important street for servicing local businesses, we wanted to make it a destination for pedestrians as well. To explore ways of making it work for both people on foot and businesses, temporary changes were made to the layout and use of the street before looking at possible long-term changes.

To catch people’s attention and bring vibrancy to the street, two outdoor seating areas and an artificial lawn area were installed. The road surface was painted with a bright red pattern and a shipping container was located on the site to host events. Urban designers call this type of project ‘Tactical Urbanism’ and there are many successful examples of these projects internationally and locally.

Can we?

scrabble sculpture (03 Dec 2011)

Can we? — quickly now!
— Can we just keep pretending
that nothing happened?

(07 May 2016)

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The text here is something plucked indiscriminately, unresisted, out of my subconscious. “Reality is … a sum of all texts in various media, including action and thought” (Annette Lavers. 1982. Roland Barthes : Structuralism and After. London: Methuen & Co. [p171].

How long does it take?

other (15 December 2011)

How long does it take
to make up for a timid
lifetime? Keep writing.

Reflecting on police brutality

This brief post intends to signal that posting to |A Twisted Pair| has recommenced.

It seems not much has changed since then. My last post, on Christmas Eve 2015, carried “an uncommonly handsome view of the Central Police Station – a strong contender, I reckon, for the title of Wellington’s ugliest building.”

Less than a fortnight ago, I posted an image on my Facebook page under the title, REFLECTING ON POLICE BRUTALITY, as follows:

police brutality (19 Mar 16)

To my eye, the Wellington Central Police Station is one of the ugliest buildings in the city. Upon reflection (in the surfaces of the building on the opposite side of Victoria Street), it does seem more interesting. This image dates from 19 March 2016.

“Brutalist architecture is a movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, descending from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century. The term originates from the French word for “raw” in the term used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of material béton brut (raw concrete). British architectural critic Reyner Banham adapted the term into “brutalism” (originally “New Brutalism”) to identify the emerging style.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture

What would Barthes think of his Hermès scarf? – The New Yorker

“It is fair to say that there exists in our era a tragic discrepancy between the staggering richness of the visible world and the extreme poverty of our capacity to perceive it.”

word pond

” . . . world blindness, a disease described superbly by Robert Harrison in his book “Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition”: “It is fair to say that there exists in our era a tragic discrepancy between the staggering richness of the visible world and the extreme poverty of our capacity to perceive it.” The cure, Barthes knew, can be found in the study of literature, photography, and other art forms, optimal training grounds for developing the kind of attention necessary to see what surrounds us.” – Christy Wampole

What would Barthes think of his Hermès scarf? – The New Yorker

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Café culture

Athfield Havana Bond (19 October 2015)

Architect Ian Athfield died on 16 January this year. In the New Zealand Listener (dated the day before), Diana Wichtel presented an engaging interview, first published in the Listener in 2012, in which Ath “talked about starting his landmark ‘act of defiance’ in 1965, and finally wanting to finish the place.” Interview: Architect Ian Athfield

My image shows an advertisement for Havana Coffee. The green Telecom Building peeping in at the top corner of the image, was, according to one NCEA student, “built in a boom period when New Zealanders had big ideas and wanted their cities to look like international ones …”

Layer upon layer

further layers (17 May 2015)

This little piece of wall – on a storefront close to the Victoria/Manners corner – has been the subject of several of my previous photographic endeavours.

All over the city, tags and posters come and go … but this spot continues to hold my interest. The main reason is that, over time, it keeps on transforming.

Recent wet weather has contributed to the intricate three-dimensional effect – which I have emphasized by using a bit of flash.

 

Japonaiserie

Japonaiserie (19 March 2015)

Whilst the arrangement of the items in this photograph (taken today in Cuba Street, Wellington) has little or nothing to do with Japanese art, my ‘seeing’ was certainly influenced by it.

The Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh used the term Japonaiserie to express the influence of Japanese art.

In a letter to Theo, his younger brother, Vincent wrote: “One of [Jules] De Goncourt’s sayings was ‘Japonaiserie for ever’. Well, these docks [at Arnhem] are one huge Japonaiserie, fantastic, singular, strange … I mean, the figures there are always in motion, one sees them in the most peculiar settings, everything fantastic, and interesting contrasts keep appearing of their own accord.”

“The West moistens everything with meaning like an authoritarian religion which imposes baptism on entire peoples.” (Roland Barthes, in Empire of Signs)

Pennants in Civic Square

pennants in Civic Square (17 February 2015)

On 16 February the Wellington City Council announced that “The [Civic Square] Portico has been successfully removed!” (see WCC Facebook page)

This shot – captured 6:20pm the following day – features strings of coloured pennants, part of the publicity for the ICC Cricket World Cup match between BLACKCAPS and England Cricket.

“There will be some finishing work being done to the Portico over the next couple of weeks and scaffolding will remain up for that, but the pathway between the two buildings is clear,” WCC says.

Portico project at an end

Now there’s an end to it (13 February 2015)

Captured last Friday (13 February), when cloudy conditions prevailed, this image is my last shot before the portico was finally dismantled. (See my earlier story for details.)

I’d show you a picture of the gap, but it’s still too messy over there right now.

“The $800,000 project to remove the earthquake-prone overbridge between the library and council office started in November, and was intended to be finished by Christmas,” according to Ian Douglas, owner of The Village Goldsmith in nearby Mercer Street. Mr Douglas’ comments were reported yesterday by The Dominion Post, under the headline, “Overrun portico project ‘damaging retail trade’“.

“It’s been a complete debacle,” [Ian] Douglas said. “Now it is dragging through what is normally our three busiest trading months.”

The news story reports Council spokesman Clayton Anderson as saying there would still be a week or two of “finishing work” but the heavy machinery would be gone and people could again walk through the area to Civic Square.