Brian Rudman: Philistine council acting like TV show makeover team

Given the rapid rise and fall from grace of public artworks in this town, perhaps we should toss out slogans like vibrant, and sophisticated and just brand ourselves Throwaway City.

Even by our short attention-span standards, the fall from grace of the suffrage centenary memorial in Khartoum Place has been spectacular.

Just 12 short years ago in the midst of the nationwide celebrations marking 100 years of women's suffrage, 300 people, headed by Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, and Dame Catherine Tizard, former Auckland mayor and then Governor-General, processed from the Town Hall to Khartoum Place.

Dame Catherine unveiled the 2000-tile mural and water feature celebrating the struggle for the emancipation of women. Featuring famous Auckland suffragettes and white camellias, the main motif was the petition signed by more than 25,000 women seeking the vote.

The artists were Claudia Pond Eyley and Jan Morrison and the mural was commissioned by Auckland City and the Ministry of Women's Affairs.

A male Herald reporter, striving for his feminine side, began his report, "An ugly duckling of Auckland has been transformed into the graceful swan of the inner-city lunch areas".

He echoed city publicists who were praising the rebirth of what was once a dull concrete dark spot. But how tastes quickly change. Now it's the turn of the suffrage memorial to be labelled dull and dark, with the city's "visionaries" out with their cold chisels and jackhammers, craving something new.

Luckily for us menfolk, those presiding over this philistinism are all women, such inheritors of the suffrage dream as planner Jo Wiggins, general manager, arts, community, recreation, Jill McPherson and chairwoman of the public arts sub-committee Christine Caughey.

It was a relief to see the letter from Margaret Wilson, which appears in today's letters column, expressing outrage at what is contemplated. I was beginning to think no one cared - or that no one with a sense of history had caught up with the "consultation" process that is being undertaken over this little corner of the grand $200 million revitalisation of the CBD strategy.

One report notes that the redesign competition for Khartoum Place "signalled a requirement to remove the tile artworks ... " Another records the city "is currently exploring opportunities for the suffragettes tiles", adding ominously that "Khartoum Place has no site-specific significance for the women's suffrage movement and therefore an opportunity exists to relocate the tiles to another prominent CBD location".

If one were a cynic, one might wonder if that prominent location might be the packing case where the much-lamented Queen Elizabeth Square, Michio Ihara Wind Tree disappeared into back in 2002, or the one that Terry Stringer's Aotea Square Mountain Fountain was destined for until the uproar this year.

As for not being "site-specific", surely the fact that it was chosen 12 years ago and was the site of the ceremonies marking 100 years of women's suffrage makes it historic enough.

Once again, Auckland City is behaving like a TV reality home makeover team. Khartoum Place is looking tired, so blitz it back to ground zero and start from scratch.

It's weird that at the same time the council is considering wrecking this artwork-cum-historic monument, it's solemnly going through the motions of considering a draft CBD public artwork development plan. This plan "promotes the development of public art that reflects and enhances Auckland's identity ... and ... that adds to the attractions and interests of the CBD's public spaces".

No examples are provided, but the suffrage memorial seems to be a perfect fit for the above recipe, and it's already there. So why think of bowling it?

The most depressing line in all the various reports is the observation by art planner Warren Pringle that "the work in Khartoum Place is to be digitally photographed to enable it to feature as an archived record within the precinct". In other words, it's to be a virtual monument.

The catalogue of recent discarded public art makes you wonder what's the point of the public artwork development plan.

Council officials insist no final decision has been made on the fate of the suffragette monument. In a civilised city, it wouldn't even be up for question.