This image is as Dunedin as Dunedin can be. It is the stained glass window in the Dunedin Railway Station (apparently the most photographed building in New Zealand) and one of the heritage objects in the city I like best. It is a heritage gem.
Dunedin is full of heritage gems but I doubt that the people who designed the proposed new rugby stadium were interested in integrating it into the character of the city as it looks like an overgrown oyster. A lot of people, even supporters of the stadium, are against council plans to provide tens of millions of dollars of rate-payers money for a new stadium. That includes me. I think the reputation of ‘ the House of Pain’ should be built on, not squandered and I would prefer to see Carisbrook Stadium spruced up.
For this project I photoshopped anti-stadium images into the Railway Station window. The opponents of council funding for the stadium have set up a group – Stop the Stadium and I used the charter from the ‘Stop the Stadium’ group (taken from the homepage of their website) and put it in (or behind actually) the train smoke. It is also inserted around the window in each of the edge panes.
Photos I took at the protest rally on 2 August 2008 are inserted into the center of the train and in the bottom panel.
I see the new image as a reminder to the council that heritage matters.
