Wellington: Creative wanderings

Satisfy your shopping desires at the Old Bank Arcade. Photo / Supplied

As I stand on Queen's Wharf bracing myself against a stiff southerly, I think that Lauris Edmond hit the nail on the head when she wrote this about Wellington: "It's true you can't live here by chance, you have to do and be, not simply watch or even describe. This is the city of action, the world headquarters of the verb."

I am on a Walk Wellington tour and we have just crossed The City to Sea Bridge from Civic Square when I spy Edmond's quote, part of the waterfront Writers Walk.

I am a born-and-bred Wellingtonian who defected to that large metropolis in the north a number of years ago, and I am back in my home city for the weekend to view it as a tourist.

You had to have imagination to "do and be" in Wellington when I was growing up in its windswept western suburbs. These days the stylishness and activity of the city is palpable.

The place is one big sculpture walk for a start. I do not exaggerate when I say there is artwork on practically every corner - the Protoplasm sculpture on the corner of Lambton Quay and Hunter St that changes with the wind is a personal favourite.

Within a stone's throw are two big steel walls of Braille known as Invisible City and the bronze of city father John Plimmer. An elderly Japanese artist with an obsession for polka dots may not, at first blush, seem like everyone's cup of tea, but if you have no other artistic experience this year go to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the City Gallery.

This avant-garde gallery is known for its edgy events, and as soon as you round the corner into Civic Square you will see that director Paula Savage and her team have done it again.

Because some of her art could not be brought to New Zealand, 80-year-old Kusama decided to create two new works especially for the Kiwi exhibition - including covering the gallery's facade in brightly coloured, vinyl polka dots.

It is one of only three installations she has ever done on the exteriors of buildings and there has been worldwide interest in the Wellington work.

Sticking dots on a building is not as easy as it sounds and very nearly didn't happen. Permission had to be gained from the relevant authorities, the original architectural plans for the Art Deco building had to be dug out and sent to Japan, and then the gallery needed to find funding for the scaffolding and other equipment necessary to put the work in place.

Inside, the exhibition contains installations that defy the imagination. Check out Fireflies on the Water - a darkened, mirrored and watery infinity room filled with red, yellow and turquoise fairy lights. Or Invisible Life - a maze of convex, round mirrors leading into a tangerine room covered in black polka dots, with large tangerine- and black-spotted, Mr Blobby-like blow-ups. Walk back through the maze and you reach a room that is the exact mirror image - black with tangerine dots and similarly patterned Mr Blobbies.