Original image by Moira Clunie
3. Invisible City
Artist | Anton Parsons |
---|---|
Year | |
Location | Lambton Quay and Grey St |
Tour directions | From Protoplasm cross the bus lane at the lights and follow Lambton Quay on the right side. You will find Invisible City surrounded by some trees next to the traffic lights. |
Sound navigation
Close your eyes and experience the world a moment without being able to see. Do the same in a windy spot.
Sculpture background
The stainless steel of this sculpture seems to glow with an inner light. The magnified Braille text suggests a message, but the artist chooses to deny us access, raising issues of communication in the contemporary world, and the difficult interface between the disabled and the rest of the community.
"Invisible City is an appropriate public work because it functions on several levels: Aesthetics – even without understanding that the dots on the two boxes are braille text, Invisible City is an aesthetically pleasing object – it doesn’t have to be read to be appreciated. Tactile – it is made to be touched. Surface – Invisible City is polished stainless steel, and reflects its surroundings. When looking at it you see a reflection of Wellington."
Anton Parsons
Parson and Peter Beatson, a university lecturer and writer who is blind. Inscribed in Braille on the sculpture is Beatson's poem, Invisible City. This is an epitaph for the death of his guide dog and an insight into the navigational difficulties blind people can encounter when their sonic charts are destroyed by the wind.
Listen to a reading of Invisible City
The word made flesh can bleed.
Am I bound or freed?
Embracing visual silence
alone
I breed a virtual skin of signs
across the void
but when the fault line ruptures
the word made flesh will bleed.
By the unseen quay
I plant this graven seed
betrayed by the wind
my sonic charts destroyed
tethered sign to skin
I am both bound and freed.
Do you own this website? |
- John Plimmer and Fritz Tom Tischler, Ross Wilson, Judy Alexander 1996 -41.28579178 174.7758163 /__data/assets/image/0017/1781/thumb-john-plimme-and-fritz.jpg John Plimmer and Fritz /tours/lambton/john-plimmer-and-fritz
- Protoplasm Phil Price 2002 -41.28543599 174.7758294 /__data/assets/image/0018/1782/thumb-protoplasm.jpg Protoplasm /tours/lambton/protoplasm
- Invisible City Anton Parsons 2003 -41.28445079 174.7755541 /__data/assets/image/0020/1784/thumb-invisible-city.jpg Invisible City /tours/lambton/invisible-city
- Nga Korerorero – Ongoing Talk Silvia Salgado 1996 -41.282292 174.776469 /__data/assets/image/0013/1732/lambton-ongoingtalk-thumb.jpg Ongoing talk thumb /tours/lambton/nga-korerorero-ongoing-talk
- Shells Jeff Thomson 2002 -41.28186866 174.7762362 /__data/assets/image/0012/1731/lambton-shells-thumb.jpg Shells thumb /tours/lambton/shells
- Spinning Top Robert Jahnke 2002 -41.28199794 174.7751702 /__data/assets/image/0019/1783/thumb-spinning-top.jpg Spinning Top /tours/lambton/spinning-top
- Ruaumoko Ralph Hotere and Mary McFarlane 1998 -41.281366 174.776307 /__data/assets/image/0019/1729/lambton-raumoko-thumb.jpg Raumoko thumb /tours/lambton/ruaumoko
- Mahatma Gandhi Gautam Pal 2007 -41.27977 174.7790 /__data/assets/image/0011/1730/lambton-ghandi-thumb.jpg Ghandi thumb /tours/lambton/mahatma-gandhi
- Seismic Shock Louise Purvis 2006 -41.278964 174.778668 /__data/assets/image/0005/1859/lambton-seismic-thumb.jpg Seismic thumb /tours/lambton/seismic-shock
- Buzzy Bee Hugh Nicholson, Bob Sharpe 2006 -41.27882442 174.778545 /__data/assets/image/0016/1780/thumb-buzzy-bee.jpg Buzzy Bee /tours/lambton/buzzy-bee
- Two pouwhenua, Wai-titi Landing Ra Vincent 2005 -41.27868419 174.7779969 /__data/assets/image/0015/1860/thumb-two-pou-whenua.jpg Pou Whenua /tours/lambton/two-pouwhenua,-wai-titi-landing
- The Cenotaph Richard Oliver Gross 1931 -41.27915901 174.7771529 /__data/assets/image/0016/1861/thumb-cenotaph.jpg Cenotaph /tours/lambton/the-cenotaph
- Kaiwhakatere: The Navigator Brett Graham 2000 -41.27842227 174.7754327 /__data/assets/image/0017/1862/lambton-navigator-thumb.jpg Navigator thumb /tours/lambton/kaiwhakatere-the-navigator
- Taiaha Guy Ngan 1972 -41.279273 174.775419 /__data/assets/image/0018/1863/lambton-taiaha-thumb.jpg Taiaha thumb /tours/lambton/taiaha