WIP · World in Pocket

Steampunk HQ

Ōamaru, New Zealand

Steampunk HQ

Steampunk HQ is an art collaboration and gallery in the historic Victorian precinct of Oamaru, New Zealand. Opened in November 2011, it celebrates its own industrial take on steampunk via an array of contraptions and sculptures, complemented by audiovisual installations. A yard also contains a colle

ction of other industrial parts and projects in various stages of completion. Steampunk HQ is located in the former Meeks Grain Elevator Building, a historic building registered with by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a Category I structure. Outside of the free-standing stone building, a coin-operated "steampunk" railway engine greets visitors. This NZR DS class diesel locomotive has been heavily modified with lights, engine, and train whistle noises, and fire breathing out of its chimney. The building's exterior walls are decorated with creations such as giant flies made from metal and industrial parts. Inside, the gallery presents a theme of a dark post-apocalyptic vision of a future "as it might have been". Contraptions and machinery featuring heavy use of copper, gears, pipes, gas cylinders, as well as an ensemble of skeletal sculptures are lit by flickering lights and accompanied...

Listen to the audio guide for Steampunk HQ Free on WIP — starts by itself when you arrive, even with the screen off

Nearby