Submission: Trust Waikato Contemporary Art Awards, 2007 (semi-finalist)
Concept:
The wall on Anglesea Street in Hamilton is a large concrete retaining wall stained with dampness; the only relief being a mid-day sun that doesn’t always shine.
Behind this wall there is land and beyond those buildings there is a river. The text itself forces a dialogue about two of New Zealand’s primary controversial features, land and water, but is condensed in scale from country to region to city. The wall is something truly iconic but without many features, a retaining wall slicing through a hillside that is rented instead of owned, to the Waikato Institute of Technology, by the local Waikato-Tainui people.
The wall on Anglesea Street is a constant testimony of the city’s back to the river and silently gives evidence of the passage of time. There is little doubt that its creation would not be duplicated today and should not be duplicated tomorrow. Instead, Anglesea Street would go around. The Telecom, Hamilton City Council buildings, the native bird mural and Caro Street office building would all be housed elsewhere. Perhaps Garden place would include more garden.
Using the wall as a reference point, the text both states the obvious and expresses disappointment. It is a statement which, when viewed by those familiar to its location, will linger as they pass the literal scene; blank but for the pressure-washed light sections of concrete, blank against an often eerily empty street, blank because of both its function and prominence in a city with a hill and a river.
