whatshotnewzealand.com
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Street art
WALL STORIES Christchurch’s rejuvenated inner city has created one of the world’s best canvases for street art. Pulling a positive out of the dramatic transformation of the city landscape forced by the earthquakes, the resulting abundance of large-scale art has made Ōtautahi a gigantic outdoor gallery that’s crammed with photo ops. Things kicked off with the successful Rise (2014) and Spectrum Street art festivals (2015-16) and their ‘Big Walls’ projects. When the annual Spectrum festival wrapped up in 2016, the Street Prints Ōtautahi festival picked up the ball and ran with it, celebrating not only street art but street dance, theatre and music as well. The new festival added to Christchurch’s already impressive collection of large-scale street murals, which continue to delight visitors and have seen Christchurch named one of the world’s street art capitals alongside New York, Barcelona, Berlin and London by Lonely Planet’s Street Art. And it’s not just random tagging, either. The city’s transformation of blank walls into stunning
works of art has featured a veritable roll call of world-renowned street artists including Askew One, Beastman, Flox, Vans the Omega, Fin DAC, Kevin Ledo, ROA, Rone, Anthony Lister, BMD, Eno and more, including local artist Wongi Wilson. You won’t go far in Christchurch before coming across some of Wilson’s artwork – the Christchurch-based graffiti/street artist has painted hundreds of pieces all over the city. Based in the suburb of Sydenham, where he grew up, Wongi played a major part in Christchurch’s post-quake street art boom, with his work as both an exhibiting and commissioned artist popping up on interior and exterior walls around the city, as well as in institutions such as the Canterbury Museum and the CoCA gallery. Using the old-skool spray can method, Wongi mixes styles from photorealism to traditional street art/graffiti, resulting in colourful, spectacular and visuallyarresting pieces that leap off the wall. Be sure to check out the spectacular word picture I Always Knew You Would Come Back by Sydney-based Australian artist Numskull at the corner of Colombo and Tuam streets. The phrase
01 — Kaitaki by Fin DAC, Hereford Street 02 — Untitled by Beastman and Vans the Omega, The Colombo 03 — Unnamed by Cracked Ink, Hereford Street 04 — I Always Knew You Would Come Back by Numskull, cnr Tuam and Colombo Streets 05 — Giant Spray Cans by Various Artists (inc. Wongi Wilson & Jacob Yikes), East Frame 06 — Whero O Te Rangi Bailey by Kevin Ledo, Armagh Street 07 — Rise From the Rubble by Brandon Warrell, Hereford Street 08 — Unnamed by Jacob Yikes, Tuam Street
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