The Fountain Dead
The Arts Festival is a time to showcase the best of Wellington to scores of influential visitors. So why is one of our most iconic public artworks, The Bucket Fountain, currently looking sad, lifeless and encrusted with grime?For information on the origins of the fountain, read the history page at Boost Media's bucketfountain.co.nz (the screensaver's not bad, either). Unsurprisingly, there are dozens of Bucket Fountain photos on Flickr; surprisingly, it doesn't have a page on Wikipedia.
Update: maybe it's going to be transplasticized. Today's Dominion Post says that the mystery target is "one of central Wellington's popular landmarks" and adds that it's in Cuba Mall. The Bucket Fountain is pretty much the only thing that meets these criteria, unless you count Blanket Man of course.
Updated update: yes, it's the transplasticization. It all happened last night (the 29th of March), so if you're curious, get down and have a look before Sunday's forecast rain arrives.
posted by Tom @ 4:02 pm
5 Comments:
I used to love watching them when I was a child... maybe 30 years ago. Don't suppose you know when they were constructed?
Townsville has a sorta outdoor water play area on its waterfront... it is warm enough to do that. The highlight is a giant elevated bucket that fills with maybe a cubic meter or two of water every couple of minutes and then tips its contents over people. I blogged a couple of pictures of it a few days ago.
i swear it previously had a wikipedia entry. i ran past it the same time i first saw the blanket man page.
i suppose it was probably removed as being too trivial or some such.
I was pretty sure it would have a page, but I searched and couldn't find anything. I didn't think Wikipedia would do something like removing a page for being too trivial: is it even possible to be too trivial for Wikipedia?!?
David: that'll be these pictures, I take it? They do look fun. I suppose the nearest thing we have to that is the Albatross sculpture by the lagoon, though the Water Whirler could have the same effect once it opens tomorrow night.
That's the one... wouldn't work in Wellington for obvious reasons, altho I suppose you could stand there in a rain coat while it dumps all over you.
One of the things I enjoyed about Wellington's bucket street art was wondering, each time a smaller bucket tipped, whether it would cause the one below it to tip. There was a sense of expectation and excitement for a small boy. Similarly, the people playing in Townsville would have an idea when the large bucket was going to tip and would gather below, ready, a few seconds before hand. It's a nice parrallel.
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