WELLINGTON (AP) – Perched on two fingers on the roof of an art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, the giant sculpture of a hand has loomed over the city for five years.
Named Quasi, the almost five metre – creation of Australia-based sculptor Ronnie van Hout bears an unsmiling human face – because why not?
Some found it disturbing, and now, after five years of provoking controversy and myriad emotions – from horror and revulsion to delight – among residents of New Zealand’s capital, Quasi will be removed from the roof of City Gallery this week.
It will be taken to a new home, the gallery said yesterday.
“This is either a great day for Wellington or a terrible day for Wellington and there’s not much view in between,” said a Wellington city council member Ben McNulty.
Personally, McNulty told The Associated Press he felt “devastated” by the sculpture’s departure.
Quasi is made of steel, polystyrene and resin, and was based on scans of van Hout’s hand and face. It was named in part for Quasimodo, the bellringer in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Hence the male gender some have attributed to Quasi.
Quasi first graced an art gallery in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2016 but proved polarising. It was the subject of an op ed in the local newspaper listing reasons the sculpture “must go”, including claims that one of its outstretched fingers “appears to be inappropriately and belligerently pointing at pedestrians and office workers”.
