1995 oil on board, triptych 760 x 1530mm sold
This was inspired in 1988, but not completed until 1995. The design was triggered by listening to the Talking Heads song of the same name. The panel on the left shows the clean wilderness, with the Waimakariri River and the Southern Alps, in Canterbury. In the centre there are some more Southern Alps, then Mount Taranaki (Egmont) erupting, with an unnamed city in the foreground.

The panel on the right shows the post-eruption urban freak-out. A mixture of cities are represented by their big sticky-uppy things. The whole city is jumping (or was it pushed) into the waters of Mercury Bay. The buildings in the right panel are: Paeroa’s L&P bottle, Auckland’s University clocktower, Sydney’s Centrepoint Tower, London’s telecom tower, Auckland’s Skytower, One of the minaret towers from around the corners of the Taj Mahal, Katmandu’s Bodhnath Stupa (temple), Paris’s Eiffel Tower, and Canberra’s communications tower.
“Same as it ever was.” - David Byrne