This Country: #3

Last Friday I travelled to Waiheke Island, 40 minutes by ferry from the Auckland CBD, 

to walk the sculpture trail along the headland of the island.

The track was about 2.5 kilometres, and was dotted with 31 sculptures. 

My favourite was the one on the top left; it was made up of a number of thin mirrored 

vertical slabs which created myriads of interesting collages.

It was an EXTREMELY hot day, and a long one - from where I live 

it's a 2 hour drive to Auckland. 

It was also quite crowded, as it was one of the last few days of the 

exhibition - but it was well worth the effort.

Here's a shot across the harbour looking back to the city:

Critters

This word, which doesn't exist in New Zealand English, always sounds quintessentially down-home American to me. It's a variant pronunciation of creature, and would have been familiar to Shakespeare's audiences; it apparently still exists in Irish with the same meaning(s).

We are in the throes of a wintry storm which is apparently dumping large amounts of snow on the skifields in the South Island mountains. I'm certainly not going outside looking for critters!


Instead, here are some of my favourite critters, from a summer visit to Auckland zoo:

I've always loved giraffes, so prettily marked and so graceful.

 

Posted for Thematic Photographic 299

Downward - Thematic Photographic 256

Looking downwards to watch the watchers at the 

Auckland Art Gallery:

And looking down at an outdoor installation:

Other downward photos can be found at Carmi's Written.Inc

Thematic Photographic 183: Pairs

Some pairs from a day in Auckland for this week's Thematic Photographic - 

visit here to see more.

This pair of native birds made a lovely mural on a wall of a shopping precinct:

And there's a pair  of mannequins in the window:

At the zoo I saw this pair:

 

And a couple of seals sunbathing on a rock.

 

At the Art Gallery I took a pic of this pair - I think the guy spotted me!

 

We are moving...

Carmi has set us off on this week's Thematic Photographic theme, Movement, with 

a fantastic bird shot. I thought zooming cars, etc, but then decided I'd put up a 

couple of photos from a day out in Auckland last week.

Here are four ferries manouevering in and out of the passenger wharves on the waterfront:

and a seal at the Auckland Zoo; it was such a hot day, I envied him his cool water.

At the Art Gallery

Yesterday, finally, I made the trip to Auckland to see the newly-revamped City Art Gallery
(I wanted to wait until the Rugby World Cup was over
and there weren't crowds of tourists around).

They have redecorated the old building beautifully, but the most stunning feature is the see-through glass atrium which is full height,
and which brings the park on the hillside right indoors.

The most stunning new work is this enormous kinetic floral sculpture, the flowers of which gently open and close randomly. LED lights in and around the blooms illuminate it at night.

This work, by Choi Jeong Hwa of South Korea, is called Flower Chandelier, and was specifically designed for the Gallery's north atrium. It is clearly visible from the street outside, brightening up even an overcast spring day, as this one was:

Another work by the same artist, Red, occupies the reflection pool in the forecourt at the front entrance to the Gallery.

A feature I found really lovely was the wooden roof and overarching "awning" as you approach the doors:

And what is there to see inside? That will have to wait for another post.