Stories

Witty, naughty and razor-sharp, Jarred Fell is coming to Christchurch to premiere his new show, Again. He talks street magic and sleight of hand with Cityscape. How did you get into magic? I was 11 years old in Las Vegas, with my parents of course! We saw a magician foot a dollar bill in a magic shop in The STRAT Hotel and I was hooked from then, making my parents take me to David Copperfield and buying every magic book under the sun. My first lesson in magic was from a cross-dresser in Charing Cross station at one of the oldest magic shops in London. Tricks or illusions? Oooh, I’m more of a trick kinda guy. This show will be tricks, but mainly tricks of the mind. I love to watch illusions but I believe, with magic, you should be able to pick up anything around you and perform an impossible...

Anthony Wright and his partner Selene Manning recently completed the stunning home-cum-art collection Wrightmann House. All the interior walls of this architectural marvel are covered in art, and the overwhelming sense of being surrounded by beauty and confronting works resolves into a wondrous experience of spotting new details and hidden surprises every time you look. Anthony wears a lot of hats in his occupational and personal life – perhaps the most visible of which is his role as director of Canterbury Museum, where he is overseeing plans for an extensive modernisation of the institution. Anthony takes a moment with Cityscape to answer some questions on life, history, and art. Being director of Canterbury Museum was the dream job that brought me to Christchurch 24 years ago. As it turns out, my great, great grandfather came here in 1857 and is buried in Linwood cemetery. So there are some family links here...

Reggae summertime legends The Black Seeds are playing Christchurch into the new year at Hagley Park on December 31. Singer and percussionist Daniel Weetman tells Cityscape about life in a band that spans two decades and many, many members. Are you currently recording a new album? Yeah, we’ve been working on ideas separately because of Covid and being in different parts of the country. So we’ve come into the studio for the last couple of days and we’re making some progress. Has that been quite different to your normal musical creation process? It’s always been a little bit of working on your own demos and then bringing them to the band and doing that together, so it hasn’t been too different with Covid – I guess the period of time has just been longer with that separation. But there’s always a positive and we’ve had more time to write and come...

The depictions on Christchurch’s exterior walls are a massive part of the city’s post-quake identity. Cityscape talks to a few of the artists who have marked our streets and watched the city evolve. Christchurch’s rejuvenated inner city has become one of the world’s best canvases for street art. Pulling a positive out of the dramatic and earthquake-forced transformation of the city landscape, the resulting abundance of large-scale art has made Ōtautahi a gigantic outdoor gallery that’s crammed with photo ops. 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 alongside local legends and urban creatives from around Aotearoa. GEORGE SHAW George, originally from the UK and having come to Christchurch via Nelson, is one of the masterminds behind street art organiser and commissioner Oi YOU! How is the Christchurch art scene different...

Joel is a Christchurch graphic designer and urban artist with a proclivity for creating art around the themes of beauty and decay. What are the inspirations for your various art pieces featuring faces? My inspiration comes from everywhere. A lot of what I paint has been influenced from my past work in graphic design and commercial art. I fuse a lot of found photographic elements of texture, shapes, patterns from all things that I am interested in like architecture, design, typography, nature, sports and urban decay, usually collaged together around a human form that again is collaged together from a mixture of different sources. How did you get into creating street art? I was always into drawing as long as I can remember. The style and nature of my work now is stencil-based, so these techniques lend themselves well to going large. It just came out of wanting to challenge myself to paint larger and larger, really. What...

George, originally from the UK and having come to Christchurch via Nelson, is one of the masterminds behind street art organiser and commissioner Oi YOU! What has Oi YOU! been up to in the last few years? We organised Rise in 2014 and Spectrum in 2015 and 2016. They were absolutely huge festivals, we worked too hard and we burned out. We did some more stuff around the country including a smaller festival in Tauranga. A few years ago Christchurch Airport approached us to do several artworks over a few years. We also did the 3D-style mural in SALT District, the one that says ‘SALT Ōtautahi’. We’ve done some Antarctic-themed murals with the Antarctic Centre and a couple of works at Riverside Market. Ōtākaro Limited got one in the south frame on Durham and Mollett Street which talks to the development of graffiti into street art. It depicts trains in New...

Canterbury Museum’s doors first opened on October 1, 1870, and over the past 150 years its collection has swelled from 25,000 items to more than 2.3 million. To celebrate the anniversary, Canterbury Museum is releasing House of Treasures: 150 Objects from Canterbury Museum Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho, a book showcasing some of the museum’s most incredible artefacts. There are 69 items from the volume currently on display in the museum – 31 of which (including the thylacine and kākāpō below) are rarely-seen delicate treasures on display for a limited time. Here are five incredible taonga from House of Treasures, and their stories: 1 - Yellow kākāpō A rarely lovely bird Kākāpō are the world’s only living flightless parrots. Once common throughout New Zealand, they are now critically endangered and survive on just three small predator-free islands. Their plumage is predominantly green, mottled with yellow and brownish grey. One specimen held at...

Trot out your inner aristocrat with this unique opportunity to experience the exhilarating sport of polo right in the heart of the city. Hagley Park’s Old Boys rugby field will be transformed into a polo field for the day, featuring a faster paced, contemporary spin on traditional polo that will have you on the edge of your seat. As well as the polo, there will be live music, food, drink and fashion to enjoy on the day. You can even try a bit of polo yourself with the sideline hitting game, and stomp the divots just like in Pretty Woman. BYO Richard Gere. Hagley Park, Sat 20 Feburbanpolo.co.nz

Orchestral-spectacular Synthony is coming to Christchurch Arena. For a live music experience that gives you chills, gets you dancing and just plain blows your mind, don’t miss the unbeatable collaboration of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra with DJs, vocalists and some incredible visuals set to some of the biggest dance hits of the last 30 years. This year’s Synthony event is promised to be the largest ever, with 90 minutes of high-octane orchestral spectacular bookended by DJ sets to keep the party going. Expect lasers, pyrotechnics, sizzling solos and the likes of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ and Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’ as you’ve never seen or heard them before. Christchurch Arena, Sat 20 Marpremier.ticketek.co.nz

Head to one of Bank Peninsula's best little towns for a day of A&P action. One of the most popular A&P shows in Canterbury, this annual event showcases the best of what local farmers, growers and producers have to offer, as well as livestock events such as the dog high jump, speed shearing and grand parade. With displays of vintage machinery, woodchopping competitions and stalls offering wares from flowers, art and crafts to baking, preserves, fruit and veg, the Little River A&P Show is a summer highlight for this charming district. Awa-iti Domain, Little River, Sat 23 Janlittlerivershow.org.nz

Wongi Wilson is a street artist with a reputation for high-quality, large-scale works in prominent positions around Christchurch. What motivates your DTR street art crew? Our motivations have changed over the years but for nearly 15 years we've pushed graffiti art productions. How is the art scene in Canterbury different now from ten years ago? The street art scene in Christchurch has become multifaceted. There are many offshoots of street art. It wasn't taken seriously as an art form ten years ago and now it is legitimate. How did you get into creating street art? It started as an interest in the sub-culture and trying to mimic what I'd seen in magazines, documentaries and movies. Along the way there were a few opportunities to develop, namely through Project Legit but besides that, it was self-motivation. READ MORE: Street art in Christchurch What was the first bit of street art you created? Was...

For everyone who’s ever sat bored through the sports or ancient history part of a pub quiz, Nomi Cohen is bringing us a thigh-slapping, head-scratching, sing-a-long musical quiz, What The Quiz is This?! What’s What The Quiz is This?! A live performance-style pub quiz. So instead of having general knowledge rounds or questions, we perform a medley of various songs and it’s the teams’ jobs to tell us what the name of the song is, who the artist is and – if it’s from a show – which show. There’s a whole bunch of rounds and categories, with a few extras on the side. How do you rate your singing ability? My mum says I’m pretty good! What’s your favourite song to sing at the top of your lungs in the car? ‘No Air’ by Jordin Sparks. I absolutely love it – it’s my absolute jam – and made better if...

A mainstay of the DTR street art crew, Dcypher cut his teeth in Canterbury before spending a decade in Los Angeles working as a freelance artist and developing mural art for TV shows like Sons of Anarchy, Silicon Valley and NCIS. Tell us about DTR. The DTR crew was formed back in the late ‘90s, predominantly graffiti artists who had similar ideals. It has had many members, but over time has been refined down to myself, Ikarus, Freak and Yikes, who are all still active today as artists in various capacities. How did you come up with the name Dcypher? The name came about when I was a teenager. It’s super cliché in hindsight, but once you’ve chosen a name you kinda have to stick to it. Graffiti can be difficult to decipher to the general public so at the time it felt like a good fit. How did you get...

A relative newcomer to the Christchurch street art scene, Jacob Root uses stencils, screens, acrylic and aerosols to create works scaling from small canvas to massive murals. Tell us a bit about your Audrey Hepburn mural – why Audrey? The Audrey Hepburn mural I designed to bring a bit of colour pop and inspiration to the corner of St Asaph Street and Manchester Street. I wanted to paint Audrey as she is a well-known figure in history, known for her glamour, acting, and what stuck out to me is that she was a major humanitarian. She was out to help improve the welfare and general happiness of people. I found that this made her really fitting for the subject of my mural because I really love to try inspire people to be happy, keep their heads up and ‘shine so bright’. What’s the story behind the vibrant yellow? I chose yellow as...

Born and raised in Ōtautahi, Mayor Lianne Dalziel has seen Christchurch rise, fall and rise again. She reflects on the rebuild and shares her vision for the future. As someone who both lives and works in the central city, I am struck every day by how much change has occurred over the past ten years. From the destruction and devastation of the earthquakes, a new central city is emerging - a city that celebrates its beautiful, meandering river – making it accessible for all. I love walking out of my office on a sunny day and seeing crowds of people enjoying the river, milling on The Terraces and outside the wonderful Riverside Market. The transformation that has occurred in the riverside areas of the central city is one of the most positive changes to come out of the earthquakes. The Ōtākaro Avon River Precinct has greatly improved our connections with the...

Christchurch-based illustrator Jacob Yikes is a staple of the city’s street art scene, and also illustrates and paints in his home studio. He’s a member of the prolific DTR street art crew. How is the Christchurch art scene different now from how it was ten years ago? There are more public artworks than there has ever been. How did you get into creating street art? I grew up painting graffiti and have always been into art as a kid. I began painting large works after the earthquakes in 2011 due to the high level of spots and walls to paint. Tell us about a piece of street art that’s inspired you. That’s a tricky one, I wouldn’t say looking at street art inspires me to paint it, to be honest. My good friend and crew mate Dcypher has always inspired me though, as he is constantly taking it to another level...

Melbourne artist Rone’s Worcester Street artwork on the side of Cathedral Junction is one of our faves. Can you tell about how the Worcester Street piece came to be? It was part of a festival curated by George Shaw. Who is the model? Teresa Oman. What inspired the work? I wanted the raw brick to blend with Teresa’s beauty. To show a contrast of beauty and decay. The fern is a nod to New Zealand’s history. READ MORE: Street art in Christchurch How did you get into creating street art? I started after being inspired by others. I started to put works up as I would skateboard around the city. What was the first bit of street art you created, and was it any good? I think it was something skateboard related. It’s long gone; it would have been very average. How does your process work? Every single work is different....

Organic Matters, the work of Wellington-based artist Chimp, is one of the most striking features of Christchurch’s Justice and Emergency Services Precinct. Given the history of street art and the law, did you think it ironic to be asked to paint on the side of the Justice and Emergency Services Precinct? Ha, yes, receiving the initial email was mildly concerning until I had taken in that it was about a potential commission. It was interesting talking to people while painting the mural, from people attending court, to police officers and lawyers and getting all their different perspectives on the project. You seem to have a real thing for art featuring birds – can you tell us about that? Birds are so connected to our culture and Aotearoa, I think partially because they are our most notable life forms across the country other than us. Because of this they are a powerful subject...