But as conversation heats up in post-quake Christchurch about how to publicly mark the loss of people and places, it's worth remembering that monuments don't always have to face the past. They can also weigh in on the topic of the future. An elegant case in point is this work, Monument to the future of dreams, by San Franciscan artist Peter Wegner.

Recently unveiled as part of an impressive public art project at Stanford University (NZ campuses, please copy), Wegner's sculpture consists of a cornerstone carved with the sentence 'Dedicated to the things that haven't happened yet and the people who are about to dream them up...' Though it borrows the solemn look and uplifting tone of nineteenth-century public monuments, Wegner's monument gets pricklier the longer you think about it. After all, the people with the power to determine 'what happens next' may not share the same dreams as you. Which is Wegner's way of urging each of us to try and shape the future actively, not just wait around to see how it looks.