The Figment

The opening on Friday was wet and cold. It didn't stop the work looking fantastic though. But it did stop those gathered from seeing those works not facing the St James side of Courtenay Place.

The next morning it still looked glorious. Not as stunning as at night, but still fabulous. Even if I do say so myself.

Looking east.

Looking west.

And one of the stars of one of the images looking at one of the other images. Talking to her she's torn between pride and embarrassment. Understandably enough. But the image is superb and, frankly, she's got nothing to be embarrassed about.

And a bit of the detailing.

Yesterday I got an email from Eric describing Simon as a genius. I'm not one for blindly chucking around epithets, but I think Simon deserves the title 'genius' more then many people on whom it is hung - just check out those cantilevered seats and the bike stands (you'll actually need to go to the park to see these cos I haven't photographed them ... yet).

Regardless of anything else that may come from this project - fame, fortune, harems - its been a pleasure to be involved in it.

And now we all have six months to get completely tired of the whole thing. Awesome.

Still we’re expecting (wanting!!) some controversy, so once you’ve seen it I implore you to ring council (04 499 4444) and tell them how much you loved (or hated) it, just to add some balance to the boring anti-everything brigade.

As we were leaving the opening (i.e. being kicked out) I braved the weather and had a look down the street side of the works. I almost cried. I was completely blown away. Maybe it was the wine, who knows. But having spent 18 months working on a project, where much of the finish was out of my hands, and only having 10cm models to play with, blindly hoping that things would sit and read as we wanted them too, it was amazing to see the results. It was far better than I could have imagined.

In case you can't tell, I'm kinda excited about it. Go see it.