Northern Lights was commissioned by the Kiwi Property Group for Unisys House at 44-52 The Terrace in 1986 and funded through the Wellington City Council’s Arts Bonus Scheme. Designed by Philip Trusttrum and made by Suzanne Johnson and Ben Hanly, the work comprises multiple panels of coloured and leadlight glass that formed a canopy for the building.

Northern Lights is reminiscent of Trusttum’s painting and its presence over the footpath lay somewhere between the abstract and the biological. With its bright palette and shapes, the work was said to be inspired by an Indian necklace. It hovered above pedestrians on the busy thoroughfare casting kaleidoscopic patterning of red, blue and orange light on the pavement.

The Bonus Arts Scheme was a short-lived incentive offered by the Wellington City Council that allowed developers to add extra floors to high-rise buildings if they funded visible public art works. The scheme ended when the Resource Management Act came into force in 1991.

In 2016 Kiwi Property removed the work when they were refurbishing the building. At the time they said it was not safety glass and lacked “seismic resilience”. Trusttrum’s response was that it was leadlight, very strong and would do less damage than large panes. The work cost approximately $90,000 to create. It was moved to storage by Wellington City Council

See also:

• Maribeth Coleman, ‘Northern Lights, Philip Trusttum’, Wellington City Libraries Recollect

• Laura Bootham, ‘Removal of public artworks causes outrage’, 1 July 2016, Radio New Zealand News