"This 1961 chapel by John Scott is perhaps the greatest piece of modernist architecture in New Zealand.

"Recently opening its doors to broader use has seen it host some of the most exciting experimental music in the country, organised in the most part by the good people behind Wellington's avant-garde performance hub The Pyramid Club," said Metro.

The 'best of' awards are Metro's "favourite destinations and experiences in the capital city."

Other award categories include the usual 'best of' categories; best shop, best beach, best street, best public gallery.

Also among its 'best of' awards are some eclectic destinations such as: Best Op Shop, Best Record Shop, Best DJ, Best Tree, and Best Toast.

Sources:

• Metro
• Society of Mary

Designed by John Scott, a New Zealand architect of Irish, Scottish, and Maori descent, the Futuna Chapel has stood on its plot for nearly 60 years, regarded as "the most complete example of a modern ‘indigenous' New Zealand design."

While originally created as a chapel in a retreat center for the Catholic Marist Brothers, it also integrates elements adopted from Maori communal spaces, making it a building that bridges cultures. Towering above the rows of standard pews and friezes showing the Stations of the Cross is a large post that branches to the ceiling — it recalls a poutokomanawa, a carved wooden central support of a traditional Maori meeting house, or wharenui.

Today, the Futuna Chapel is nondenominational, hosting occasional concerts and lectures by speakers including architects Alejandro Aravena and Niall McLaughlin. (In April, as part of its annual lecture series, the chapel will welcome a professor of new media art and cultural heritage.)

On sunny Wellington days, rays stream through the colorful acrylic window panels designed by Auckland sculptor Jim Allen and fixed into the soaring ceiling. They transform the space into a shimmering jewel box with varying textures.

The light casts gridded, rainbow patterns on the roughcast plaster walls and the floor made of pounamu, a beautiful serpentine marble that holds special value for Maori.

Although small, Futuna keeps your eyes wandering, like a sculpture that reveals its secrets as you slowly observe it in the round. Scott built it on a square plan, but its regular base is offset by the angular ceiling, which features striking rafters.

As you move through the chapel, hidden niches fitted with more windows emerge above you, including one that allows sun to spotlight the altar, made of South African red granite. Its roughness contrasts sharply with the smooth side altars made of white Kairuru marble, above which protrude detailed mosaics showing Mary, Chanel, Jesus, and St. Joseph with the baby Jesus. Continue reading

Source and Image

• Hyperallergic article by Claire Voon, a staff writer at Hyperallergic.

The discovery in late August 2012 in rural North Taranaki of a lost carving of the crucified Jesus Christ, 12 years after it was stolen from the Futuna Chapel in Wellington, was very welcome news to the Friends of Futuna Charitable Trust, the guardians of the statue's original home.

The 160cm tall figure of Christ was hand-carved from mahogany by noted New Zealand sculptor Jim Allen in 1961, for the crucifix that completed the award-winning design of Futuna Chapel by architect John Scott.

When the figure was first found Allen expressed his delight at its rediscovery. "This is a red-letter day for all of us and brings to a close our endless speculation as to its whereabouts. I look forward to its re-installation and further confirmation of John Scott's vision for the Futuna Chapel".

Although the chapel is no longer a consecrated church, the Christ figure was part of Scott's original architectural vision for the chapel, and its recovery provides a sense of completeness in the on-going restoration of the building. The Trust has been encouraging the use of the chapel for community events, so that its unique design and spiritual qualities can be enjoyed and appreciated as widely as possible.

Shonagh Kenderdine, the patron of the Futuna Trust and Chair of the Historic PLaces Trust Board, says "The return of the Christ figure to Futuna has great spiritual, cultural and architectural significance for New Zealanders. The figure is the mauri (life-force) of the chapel. Te Hokinga Mai (the Returning) began today with the figure's road journey from Taranaki to Wellington under the protection of the New Zealand Police, who have been so instrumental in its return".

Mark Burry, NZ architect and now Professor of Design at RMIT Melbourne, will present the 2013 Futuna lecture in New Zealand starting in Auckland on 13 March, followed by Christchurch on 14 March and Futuna Chapel in Wellington on Sunday 17 March following the public open day.

Source

• Eventfinder
• Image: TenOne
  

Colin - McCahon that is - stands by the window. Van Dyck is resting under covers in the corner and Toss Woollaston is lying on the table awaiting further dental work.

But it's not the big-name guests commanding the most attention at the Italian art conservator's Wellington studio.

Propped on pillows on the central table is Jim Allen's striking mahogany Christ figure - stolen from Karori's Futuna Chapel over a decade ago and last year rescued from a Taranaki farm.

Izzo is having a minor conservation crisis. Having spent 20 years restoring religious art around Naples following the 1980 Irpinia earthquake, she is no stranger to crucifixes.

Her children were breastfed in pews, and when she moved to New Zealand in 2001 she so missed churches that she begged to work on Khandallah Catholic church's crucifix for free.

But when restoring a 13th century crucifix, consulting the artist is not a consideration. Here, she must juggle the wishes of the Futuna Trust, the original sculptor and her own conservation ethics.

Fortunately, Allen and she agree that Jesus should tell something of his dramatic story.

But it's a question of degree. It's the eternal conundrum for conservators, whose job is not to make old things new, but to conserve while retaining time's signature; to repair damage so it no longer distracts, without trying to forge the original.

Izzo points out thin stripes of blanching on Jesus's right calf. The fact they dribble across rather than down the smooth muscle suggests they were caused recently - probably by water infiltration -when the figure was lying down.

So she will need to swab the surface to lighten the surrounding wood, making the blanching less obvious.

"I have to find a mediation between the desire of the artist and what needed to be done . . . It's a puzzle."

With her red statement glasses, the glamorous Izzo, 52, could step out of her white lab coat and into a cocktail party.

But her workplace hasn't always been so sanitised. Born in Rome, she studied art, then heritage conservation.

When the Irpinia earthquake struck, she volunteered to help piece together the treasures of generations, from sculptures and ceramics to a 50 square metre canvas. Continue reading

Sources

• Dominion Post
• Image: Studio Carolina Izzo

It was carried from a police van back into the chapel while a karakia (prayer) was sung.

A prayer was offered by Taranaki kaumatua (elder), Sam Jackson, as the statue lay at the bottom of the cross it was stolen from.

The Auckland artist who carved the statue, Jim Allen, was at the chapel to see its return.

He said it was a great day.

"It's a day that I was beginning to think I was never going to see."

He was wondering what the statue would look like after its time away, but it survived with just a finger broken and some scratches.

"I think with a good clean he's going to be all right.

A crown of thorns that was on Christ's head has still not been found.

Futuna, formally a Retreat House, was sold in 2000. All the buildings except the chapel, which has heritage status, were demolished to make way for a housing development.

The Chapel was acquired by a Trust which now maintains it.

Continue reading