Nightmare-inducing – and beloved – hand statue bids farewell after ‘disturbing’ the public for years

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 towered over the city for five years.

Called Quasi, Australia-based sculptor Ronnie van Hout’s 16-foot – nearly 5-metre – creation bears an unsmiling human face – because why not?

Some found it disturbing and now, after five years of provoking controversy and countless emotions – from horror and disgust to delight – among residents of the New Zealand capital, Quasi will be removed from the roof of the City Gallery this week.

It will be sent to a new home, the gallery said Wednesday.

“It’s either a great day for Wellington or a terrible day for Wellington and there’s not much in between,” said Ben McNulty, a Wellington city councillor.

Personally, McNulty told The Associated Press he felt “devastated” by the sculpture’s removal.

The Quasi is made of steel, polystyrene and resin, and is based on scans of van Hout’s hand and face. It was named in part for Quasimodo, the bell ringer in Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Therefore, some attribute the male gender to Quasi.

Quasi first decorated – or haunted – an art gallery in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2016, but it proved polarizing. It was the subject of an op-ed in the local paper listing reasons why the sculpture “must go”, including claims that one of its outstretched fingers “seems to point inappropriately and belligerently at pedestrians and office workers”.

“Maybe 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 to its residents.

“He arrived, and I’m not going to say the town unanimously hated him, but I think 80% were like, ‘What is this monster? What have we done?’” McNulty said.

“But I think over time there’s been a softening, there’s a sort of pro-quasi group that I consider myself a part of,” he added.

On Wednesday, many in Wellington’s Civic Square, where Quasi’s gallery is located, said they had warmed to him too.

“It’s really upsetting but it’s a staple of Wellington now,” said Anja Porthouse, who had brought friends and family to see Quasi and was “gutted” to see it go.

The quasi will 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’m sure it will be missed, but even Lovecraftian nightmares have to go back to where they came from, and now you only have one absence to reflect on.”

Dozens responded to the news on social media with concern, joy and jokes about the lifting of the curse that local lore has attributed to Kuazi.

The sculpture has graced Wellington’s skyline during “some of its toughest times”, McNulty said. The city has struggled with earthquake-prone buildings, widespread plumbing problems and political division in recent years.

Other comments took guesses at where Quazi might end up.

“He’s going to The Hague,” wrote a New Zealander on X.

“He will be missed,” said Jane Black, who runs the Wellington Sculpture Trust.

“I personally will be happy to see it go somewhere else for a change,” the city’s mayor, Tory Whanau, told the AP. “I think there’s a strong sense of relief.”