Love is on the wall

Picture / Hot City

Love letters aren't the sort of thing we're likely to keep on display. They get tucked in drawers or carefully stashed in a secret spot, perhaps to be rediscovered during house cleaning years later.

But if you don't mind sharing sweet words - yours or someone else's - what better way to do it than on the side of a building in central Auckland.

The Love Letters exhibition opened yesterday as part of the Auckland Festival AK05, and there was plenty of good reading from the footpath, including a section in Braille.

"My darling blind Valentine," read one practical message. "Remember to draw the curtains when we make love."

Liz Smith, marketing manager for the event says that she has been "absolutely blown away" by the response from New Zealanders, both expatriate and local.

"You think: 'Is this going to work? It's a bit off the wall.'"

Or on the walls, as it turns out.

Heart of the City were hoping to get 2500 letters, the minimum required to cover the Bucklands building, near the Britomart train station. They have so far received 6000-8000, and the number is growing.

Especially touching is the fact that many of the notes are from usually macho, beer-swilling Kiwi blokes. A sweet letter from a man who has had a fight with his new bride tells her: 'I love you and I will be waiting when you realise that'.

Others are lighter in tone: 'Hey sexy, tonight' and 'I promise to keep you as my wife forever'.

Tourists, perhaps drawn by the quaint barbershop quartet singing classics from another era, or seduced by the free Hershey's Kisses delivered personally by Dr Seuss' Cat in the Hat, flock to the building.

Alan Hamilton, a visitor from Canada, takes a picture of his letter to take home to his wife in Ontario. Lena Hejsel and Anne Bohlke from Denmark paste a letter to 'a guy we met on the bus'. Others, like Anna Liu from China and Sue Knight, an Australian living in New Zealand, take their time to simply browse.

Romantic missives aren't the only ones on display. There are love letters exchanged between girlfriends, plus letters to pets, parents, dead grandparents and even one to someone's computer.

Children's letters are pasted at the very bottom (so the little people can read them when they come to visit), with the generic E-cards that are available through the Love Letters website at the very top. Handwritten letters sit somewhere in the middle, at just the right height for an average adult.

Nicola Preston, part of the Love Letters team says that although most of the letters are in English, there are a few in languages ranging from Swedish to Indonesian that have arrived through the website.

"It's overwhelming that people have been willing to open their hearts and put it on a building; it shows you how much they actually do care."

The Love Letters exhibition will run until Easter. The website will also be open till then, and Heart of the City is hoping to cover the next building with letters as well. Judging by the thousands of letters already covering the walls, that will not be a difficult feat.