Taking car parks for a spin
Jasmax’s A Giant Pillow (left) and Hannah Eames’ installation.
The Public Nap Series by art collective Emotion Time.
Emma Harrison next to her 3-metre-long lenticular slice of Wellington’s waterfront.
![On 11 March, Park[ing] Day, art installations dominated Wellington's inner-city parking spaces.](https://cdn.architecturenow.co.nz/site_media/media/cache/19/de/19de232a0e0ab1173d93c188f306b0e5.jpg)
On 11 March, Park[ing] Day, art installations dominated Wellington’s inner-city parking spaces.
Parking Day transformed the streets of Wellington on 11 March with the sights of art installations running from one end of the city to the other.
Organised by the Wellington Sculpture Trust and Wellington City Council, the one-day event saw as many as 17 car parking spots make way for a sprawling set of inspirations to mark what is a growing annual open-source global initiative.
In upper Cuba Street Hannah Eames brought a nature-inspired theme into play with a careful grid of hundreds of weathered stones and pieces of driftwood transporting passersby away from soul-less tarmac to a more spiritual place.
At the Lambton Quay end of town an inspired crew from Jasmax, consisting of Michelle Hall, Darni Struijck and Thane Houston-Stevens, went wild with three entries for a yet-to-be-announced people’s choice award. The first, A Giant Pillow, is made from recycled wool insulation collected from construction sites in Wellington. The second installation, Take-Away/Throw-Away, is based on a collection of rubbish for a month, treasuring all recyclable items and painting any non-recyclable rubbish in paint. The firm’s final creation, The Circle of Life, draws attention to the deteriorating air quality of the urban environment and with an enclosed green wall provided by Natural Habitats providing an example of a small lung in the city.
Strung between the two were car-less kaleidiscopes of imagination including an ode to the orange cone, a temporary fashion catwalk in fluoro pink, a lenticulated screen and trompe l’oiel by the Wellington Railway Station, and two whole car parks devoted to the exercising exploits of human installation Ryan Ballinger.
One car park space invited Wellington folk to stop and read a car-length stencilled message: “Tonight the sun will set at 7.48pm, set your alarm as a reminder to, acknowledge the day, know others will be doing the same”.
Last but not least, a definite front-runner for people’s choice was a work called the Public Nap Series by art collective Emotion Time.
After all what better activity to replace a space occupied by a sedentary, inanimate and expensive car than with the symbolism of taking time to park oneself horizontally on a pure white bed, with pure music in your ears, and a calming white sleep mask?
