By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY | Associated Press
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Perched on two fingers on the roof of an art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, the giant sculpture of a hand has dominated the city for five years.
Named Quasi, the 16-foot creation by Australian sculptor Ronnie van Hout bears an unsmiling human face, because why not?
Now, after five years of controversy and countless emotions – from horror and revulsion to delight – Quasi was removed from the roof of the City Gallery last week.
It will be moved to a new home, the gallery said.
“It’s either a great day for Wellington or a terrible day for Wellington, and there’s not much sight in between,” Wellington City Council member Ben McNulty said.
Personally, McNulty told the Associated Press that he felt “devastated” by the sculpture’s departure.
Quasi is made of steel, polystyrene and resin and is based on scans of van Hout’s hand and face. It owes its name in part to Quasimodo, the bell ringer in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”
Quasi first graced – or haunted – an art gallery in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2016, and proved polarizing there too. She was the subject of an opinion piece in the local newspaper listing reasons why the sculpture “must go”, including saying that one of her outstretched fingers “appears to point inappropriately and belligerently at pedestrians and office workers.
“Maybe the monster just wants to be loved?” van Hout responded at the time.
In 2019, Quasi was installed in Wellington.
“He showed up, and I won’t say the town unanimously hated him, but I think 80 percent of them were like, ‘What is this monster?’ What have we done?’ said McNulty.
“But I think that over time there has been a certain softening, there is a sort of pro-Quasi group, which I consider myself to be part of,” he added.
Last week, many people at Civic Square in Wellington, where the gallery with Quasi is located, said they enjoyed it too.
“It’s really worrying but it’s a Wellington staple now,” said Anja Porthouse, who had brought friends and family to see Quasi and was “gutted” to leave.
Quasi was to be lifted from the roof by helicopter on Saturday, the gallery said.
