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Controversial giant hand’s removal from top of New Zealand building is proving controversial
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 loomed over the city for five years.
Named Quasi, the 16 feet creation of Australia-based sculptor Ronnie van Hout bears an unsmiling human face – because why not?
Some found it disturbing and now, after five years of provoking controversy and myriad emotions – from horror and revulsion to delight – among residents of New Zealand’s capital, Quasi will be removed from the roof of City Gallery this week.
Charlotte Graham-McLay / AP
It will be taken to a new home, the gallery said Wednesday.
“This is either a great day for Wellington or a terrible day for Wellington and there’s not much view in between,” said Ben McNulty, a Wellington city council member.
Personally, McNulty told The Associated Press, he felt “devastated” by the sculpture’s departure.
Quasi is made of steel, polystyrene and resin, and was based on scans of van Hout’s hand and face. It was named in part for Quasimodo, the bellringer in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”
Hence the male gender 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. It was the subject of an op ed in the local newspaper listing reasons the sculpture “must go,” including claims that one of its outstretched fingers “appears to be inappropriately and belligerently pointing at pedestrians and office workers.”
“Perhaps the monster just wants to be loved?” van Hout responded at the time.
In 2019, Quasi was installed in Wellington, where he grew over time on its residents.
“He arrived and I won’t say the city unanimously hated him but I reckon 80% were like, ‘What is this monster? What have we done?'” McNulty said.
“But I think that over time there’s been a bit of a softening, there’s sort of a pro-Quasi group, which I consider myself part of,” he added.
On Wednesday, many at Wellington’s Civic Square, where the gallery with Quasi is located, said they had warmed to him too.
“It’s really disturbing but it’s a staple of Wellington now,” said Anja Porthouse, who had brought friends and family to see Quasi and was “gutted” it was leaving.
Quasi is to be lifted from the roof by helicopter on Saturday, when the giant hand will travel to an undisclosed location in Australia, the gallery said.
“Everything comes to an end eventually,” van Hout told the AP. “I am sure it will be missed, but even Lovecraftian nightmares have to return to where they came from, and now you only have an absence to reflect on.”
Dozens responded to the news on social media with dismay, glee and jokes about the curse that local lore has attributed to Quasi being lifted.
The sculpture has adorned the Wellington skyline during “some of its most difficult times,” McNulty said. The city has struggled with earthquake-prone buildings, widespread plumbing problems and political division in recent years.
Other comments took guesses about where Quasi might end up.
“He’s going to The Hague,” wrote one New Zealander on X.
“He will be missed,” said Jane Black, who heads the Wellington Sculpture Trust.
“I’ll personally be pleased to see it head somewhere else for a change,” the city’s mayor, Tory Whanau, told the AP. “I think there’s a strong feeling of relief.”
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An Arizona man says police held him down on scorching asphalt while arresting him during the height of Phoenix’s summer heat wave, causing third-degree burns on his body.
Video obtained by CBS News from the man’s attorney shows Michael Kenyon talking on his cell phone walking in a parking lot on July 6 when police pull up in a Phoenix police truck. Two officers get out and Kenyon puts away his phone. Within a few minutes, they try to handcuff him and a struggle ensues. Two backup officers then arrive at the scene.
It appears from the video that the four officers push Kenyon onto the ground and hold him there. Officers then scuffle with Kenyon before he is finally handcuffed and the officers lift him from the asphalt and escort him into a police vehicle.
Kenyon’s attorney, Bobby DiCello, said he spent more than one month in the hospital after the incident recovering from burns from the asphalt.
When officers lifted Kenyon off the asphalt, his melted skin peeled off and fell to the ground, his attorney said. Police called an ambulance after an officer noticed his burns, police said.
Bobby DiCello
“They held a man — another human being — on a surface so hot that it caused his skin to bubble and boil. It defies all reason,” DiCello said in a statement, adding his client was now “scarred for life.”
DiCello said the temperature that day was 114 degrees, with the asphalt estimated to be between 180 and 200 degrees. Phoenix hit 100 straight days with at least 100-degree temperatures during the summer. Arizona has the country’s only chief heat officer, and Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, is the hottest metro area in the United States.
Phoenix police said officers responded to a call regarding a theft in progress. “Officers made contact with Kenyon, telling him he was being detained so they could understand what may have occurred. The man struggled with police, which resulted with him being taken to the ground on the hot asphalt. The man sustained burns to different parts of his body from the time he was on the ground,” police said in a statement to CBS News.
Police said Kenyon was determined not to be the robbery suspect they were searching for that day. Later when he was taken to the hospital, officers learned he had a felony warrant out for his arrest.
Phoenix police said their Professional Standards Bureau is investigating the incident.
contributed to this report.
Billionaire Elon Musk has been ordered to attend a Philadelphia court hearing on Thursday after he was sued by District Attorney Larry Krasner over his $1 million giveaway to voters.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in a courtroom at City Hall in Center City, according to a court document.
Last week, Krasner sued Musk and alleged that Musk and his super PAC are trying to influence voters in next week’s presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The Philadelphia District Attorney is charged with protecting the public from public nuisances and unfair trade practices, including illegal lotteries. The DA is also charged with protecting the public from interference with the integrity of elections,” Krasner said in a statement announcing the complaint last week.
Musk, who founded Tesla and SpaceX, has thrown his full support behind Trump in his run for a second term in the White House. Nearly two weeks ago, he vowed to hand out $1 million a day until Election Day on Nov. 5 to voters who signed his PAC’s petition supporting the First Amendment and Second Amendment of the Constitution.
Some experts have questioned the legality of Musk’s actions to give voters $1 million.
“The actions that we’re seeing … it violates federal law pretty clearly. Actually, I don’t think it’s a particularly close call,” Adav Noti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, told CBS News last week.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also questioned Musk’s giveaway.
“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That is deeply concerning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week.
Musk has been very active in supporting Trump in Pennsylvania, one of the key battleground states in the election. He was in the Philadelphia area for a town hall on Oct. 17 calling on Pennsylvanians to get registered to vote.
At the town hall in Ridley High School in Delaware County, Musk called Pennsylvania “linchpin” for the 2024 election.
“I’m here for a very important reason, which is – I can’t emphasize this enough – Pennsylvania, I think, is the linchpin in this election,” Musk said at the time. “This election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America, and along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization.”
