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.

If that doesn't blow your mind try the 60s lounge room covered in fluorescent red, orange, blue and green dots, and the infinity room chocker with white and red polka-dotted mushrooming blobs.

It's not all about hardcore contemporary art, of course, and while we're here, Wellington is in full World of Wearable Art (WOW) swing.

The sound of credit cards being flexed fills the air as planeloads of 35-plus ladies swarm into town.

Held just as Fashion Week winds up in Auckland, it's hard not to notice the contrast - while the former caters to the fashionistas and media denizens, WOW captures the imagination of the whole city.

The part costume design, part craft event is not easy to define, but it is a fabulous show and hugely popular. And it's becoming evermore international - entrants this year hailed from 10 countries, and the Supreme Award winner was Alaskan David Walker with his Lady of the Wood, a Cinderella dress made entirely of wood panels.

WOW is worth a stroll. From the audience, it's hard to get an appreciation of the wacky materials and craftsmanship that have gone into the works, and on the Wander walk, past Supreme Award winners are exhibited in various locations around town.

Fatigued from our Wellington walkings we head back to the sumptuous Victorian decor of the Museum Hotel - itself a mini exhibition with a stunning collection of New Zealand art in its foyer.

But before we cross the road to the hotel we pass Regan Gentry's Green Islands sculpture outside Te Papa - cabbage trees, toi toi, manuka and flax made of No 8 fencing wire and bent as though against the capital's prevailing northwester.

Having grown up tilting against that wind I immediately recognise the sentiment, wildness and exhilaration of this city perched at the end of the island.

Happily, it's not only artists or dyed-in-the-wool Wellingtonians who can appreciate it.

Maria Slade travelled to Wellington courtesy of Positively Wellington Tourism and Air New Zealand.