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It’s been an odd week. Last Monday, Ronnie van Hout’s giant public sculpture—which grafts his face onto his hand—was installed on the roof of City Gallery, and mass media and social media went ape. Most of the big media in New Zealand have covered it, and, overseas, so has CNN, Time, the Guardian, W, and even the Hindustani Times. It’s provided an opportunity for harmless fake-news headlines and pseudo-hysteria—Giant Hand Terrifies Capital!—even though no one seems remotely terrified.

People see crazy things in the work. Some think it looks like Trump. Someone described it as the invisible hand of Adam Smith (even though it is excessively visible), another claimed it was the devilish white hand of Theo Schoon. One caring person proposed making a glove for it, to keep it warm in winter; another said they will not set foot in Civic Square until it is gone. It’s been suggested that there should be a trigger warning for those with suicidal thoughts. And, all the while, people flock to Civic Square to see it and take photos.   

It’s true that public sculptures are the butt of jokes and a routine target of deranged interpretations, but Quasi is asking for it. It’s named after Quasimodo, the misshapen misunderstood bellringer from Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, a target of scorn and fear. Van Hout wants to show how we reveal ourselves in our responses to ‘the freak’. In installing his curious figure without a narrative to explain its presence or intentions, Van Hout leaves it to us to provide our own explanations, revealing ourselves in the process, then to watch how our and other views play out in the court of public opinion. So those who think they are attacking Van Hout’s sculpture are simply playing the artist’s game. Quasi is a conversation starter. Everything will be revealed.
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