Wellington, New Zealand — Perched on two fingers on the roof of an art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, the giant sculpture of a hand has dominated the city for five years.
Named Quasi, the 16-foot creation by Australian sculptor Ronnie van Hout bears an unsmiling human face – because why not?
Some found it disturbing and now, after five years of controversy and countless emotions – from horror and disgust to delight – among residents of New Zealand’s capital, Quasi will be removed from the roof of the City Gallery this week .
Charlotte Graham-McLay / AP
It will be moved to a new home, the gallery said Wednesday.
“It’s either a great day for Wellington or a terrible day for Wellington and there’s not much sight in between,” Wellington City Council member Ben McNulty said.
Personally, McNulty told the Associated Press, he felt “devastated” by the sculpture’s departure.
Quasi is made of steel, polystyrene and resin and is based on scans of van Hout’s hand and face. It owes its name in part to Quasimodo, the bell ringer in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”
Hence the masculine gender that some have attributed to Quasi.
Charlotte Graham-McLay / AP
Quasi first graced – or haunted – an art gallery in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2016, but proved polarizing. She was the subject of an opinion piece in the local newspaper listing reasons why the sculpture “must go”, including saying that one of her outstretched fingers “appears to point inappropriately and belligerently towards the pedestrians and office workers.
“Maybe the monster just wants to be loved?” van Hout responded at the time.
In 2019, Quasi moved to Wellington, where he grew up with its residents over time.
“He came in and I won’t say the town unanimously hated him, but I think 80 percent of them were like, ‘What is this monster? What have we done?’” McNulty said.
“But I think that over time there has been a certain softening, there is a sort of pro-Quasi group, which I consider myself to be part of,” he added.
On Wednesday, many people in Wellington’s civic square, where the gallery is located with Quasi, said they also enjoyed it.
“It’s really worrying but it’s a Wellington staple now,” said Anja Porthouse, who had brought friends and family to see Quasi and was “gutted” to leave.
Quasi is to be lifted from the roof by helicopter on Saturday, when the giant hand travels to an undisclosed location in Australia, the gallery said.
“Everything eventually comes to an end,” van Hout told the AP. “I’m sure we’ll miss it, but even Lovecraftian nightmares have to go back to where they came from, and now you only have an absence to reflect on.”
Dozens of people reacted to the news on social media with dismay, joy and jokes about the curse that local tradition attributes to the lifting of Quasi.
The sculpture adorned Wellington’s skyline during “some of its most difficult times”, McNulty said. The city has faced earthquake-prone buildings, widespread plumbing problems and political divisions in recent years.
Other comments have speculated where Quasi might end up.
“He’s going to The Hague,” one New Zealander wrote on X.
“He will be missed,” said Jane Black, who runs the Wellington Sculpture Trust.
“I would personally be happy to see it somewhere else for a change,” the city’s mayor, Tory Whanau, told the AP. “I think there’s a strong sense of relief.”
