With the countdown now beginning for the 2025 Little Street Art Festival, we thought it was a perfect time to recap the 2024 incarnation of the little festival with a big heart! Staged in December 2024 (which in itself is hard to fathom in the midst of our grey, bleak winter), the 2024 Little Street Art Festival was the second staging of the event, and presented a new roster of artists and activations – bringing fresh ideas around urban creativity to Ōtautahi – expanding the discourse around how art can exist in our streets, a reminder that small can be impactful and artists need not be restricted solely to the 2D format of muralism. Avoiding a curatorial theme, the 2024 Little Street Art Festival embraced diversity of narratives and materials, opening up new possibilities for artists and exposing audiences to fresh uses of urban space.
Jay ‘Daken’ Skelton’s Blackbook 101 was a comic book exploring aspects of graffiti culture, individual pages strapped to lampposts along Manchester Street, inviting the public audience to follow the unfolding story as they traversed the city. Bright and colourful, with Daken’s signature funk, the book invited people to reconsider their understanding of the visual information that existed around them – recontextualising the graffiti tags, stickers, throw-ups and pieces found in close vicinity through the drop of some knowledge. While Daken’s comic book manifested as a unique physical object, Sofiya R’s turn the page took independent publishing in an array of directions. Based on Sofiya’s collection of photogrpahs documenting the changing the urban landscape of Ōtautahi, the artist created a limited edition series of hand finished zines (changing details of the city noted by the overlay of colour images over the black and white documentation), as well as an installation of the zine imagery across a Manchester Street bollard – subverting the idea of which came first – the zine or the installation. To add another twist, copies of the zine were then distributed covertly throughout the city for people to collect – in one swoop, turn the page incorporated publishing, promotion and distribution – all through a thoughtful, artistic view of the city.
Inside the picturesque Arts Centre, Smeagol Doesart’s Drips subverted expectations by suggesting a fluidity behind the visible, a secretion of form that de-stabilised the familiar environment through some unsettling presence. These melting drips, seemingly made of heavy concrete, were in fact, light weight constructions – made from cardboard and expanding foam and textured with paint and sand. Testament to the artist’s deft creative touch, the subtle dispersal throughout the Arts Centre ensured that people were left surprised and uncertain as to what they were seeing – exactly the response the most powerful street art elicits. Similarly surprising were Klaudia Bartos’ sculpted faces found along Worcester Boulevard – an expansive series titled I See You, faces appeared on surfaces and urban detritus; a spilled coffee cup, a brick, a crushed can, a metal plate embedded in the footpath. These works, drawing on the phenomenon of pareidolia, invited double-takes, forcing people to question if what they saw was real or a confusion. These small works did not last long, rewarding intrepid explorers who were quick to seek them out, before vanishing – adding to the question of perception.
The final artist of the 2024 roster was Razor Taser Laser, stencil artist and urban prankster, whose work spanned two distinct projects that overlapped with themes around our experience of the digital and real worlds. The Writing is on the Screen was a series of emoji paintings at various points across the city – creating phrases for the public to interpret, taking cues from the surrounding landscape (“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” next to Alice Cinemas, “It’s Getting Hot In Here, So Take Off All Your Clothes” in front of the Dance-O-Mat). The works, not only invited engagement, but also asked questions around how digital platforms are affecting our methods of communication – how do singular icons like emoji’s contrast with the collective power of phrasing words? Razor Taser Laser’s more lasting work, Golden Apple, Glistening Melon, found in Collett’s Lane, similarly explored the real world/digital world divide. Taking a still life painting found in the digital game Minecraft (itself based on a real oil painting), the artist created a real world painting, bringing the digital to life in a circular rotation, while retaining the process of digital imagery, painstakingly painting more than 3000 individual squares to render the image. In doing so, we are asked to think about how we increasingly see the world through the pixelated digital lens. For the audience, the language is visible and understood, but in different ways and depending on one’s perspective – much like the image, it makes sense in different ways and from different distances…
We had blast supporting the creation of these thoughtful, unique works for art by a group of super talented artists – and then introducing the public to the festival creations – from guided tours to workshops and a lively artist panel. We value the Little Street Art Festival’s ability to encourage new ways of exploring and experiencing the streets, asking people to look closer, to laugh at the absurd, to cherish the intimate moments, and to see possibility in the environment that surrounds us!
We have compiled a range of images from the 2024 Little Street Art Festival, captured by our friend Centuri Chan – a record of what our artists created, our interaction with their work, and as a reminder that this unique event will soon return!
Good things take time – that’s what they say, anyway. It’s hard to believe that it was mid-March when we sat down with Melbourne artist Drez to reflect on his whirlwind visit to Ōtautahi for the Flare Street Art Festival, where does the time go? With a lot going on, it has taken us a while to finally publish our conversation (conducted in a car in Phillipstown just before Drez departed for the airport!), but we know it is worth the wait! After getting to know Drez as he painted his striking mural on St Asaph Street, it was a privilege to take the chance to dive a bit deeper into his practice, his influences and the comparative cultural and historic landscapes of Aotearoa and Australia. A thoughtful and reflective presence, Drez reveals the importance that he places on his work’s ability to engage its audience through colour and form, eliciting a direct connection between art and experience…
On the day that you’re about to leave, its great to finally get to have a chat – I guess we should start with how you have enjoyed your time in Ōtautahi, Christchurch…
Drez: I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, pretty chock-a-block with painting and then one hour to do something else and then sleeping and then painting again, you know, just rinse and repeat. But it’s been really nice. Everybody has been super friendly, people have responded really well to the mural. All of the festival hosting has been great, and we’ve met a lot of good people. All things considered, it’s been a good time.
This is your first time in the city, right? Did you look into Ōtautahi before coming over or have you learned on the ground?
Drez: I did a little bit of research into mainly just looking at the earthquakes and how that affected the city. I guess more broadly I did a bit more research on New Zealand, the history of the population that’s been here and pre-colonial and post-colonial sort of times.
Is that something that you would normally do when you’re traveling or is that something that has kind of been fed into you as an artist, that need to explore those types of contexts? It’s an increasing responsibility for artists to know about the environments that they’re going to and working in, right? Knowing that you are here for a short span and would be under time pressure to complete the mural, does that add to that responsibility to have a bit more of an understanding in advance?
Drez: To be honest, not really. Like, I think for me, my work is not really narrative driven or political or about social stories or the environment as such. It’s more focused on art and colour and architecture and tropes that don’t really lean into the social environment. So, in terms of directly relating to my work, it’s not hugely relevant. But for me personally, I am super interested, and I think it’s important when you go to other locations to know about the culture. And there’s obviously a correlation between New Zealand and Australia and the First Nations’ history in Australia and the pre-colonial history in New Zealand as well. So I thought, you know, I felt like there was a level of responsibility to understand a bit more and not just come in and be like, great, I’m just going to paint a wall and then piss off home and keep doing what I’m doing without caring about where I’ve actually been or any of the important aspects of where I’ve been.
You know, I think for both Australia and Aotearoa, we’re at really important times in terms of the discourse around indigeneity and the legacy of colonialism and the responsibilities to address issues that have faced indigenous cultures in both countries. Obviously, as you say, your work is not necessarily centred on that, but how do you sort of see the relationship between the two countries. Have you noticed anything while you’ve been here that sort of signifies our differences or similarities?
Drez: I’ve definitely noticed a bit. I mean, I think obviously there’s a similar time period as to when colonial settlement happened between New Zealand and Australia. So, in terms of the age of our colonial nations, it’s similar, it is quite different to America that’s got a couple of hundred years on top of us and other places that have even more extensive time periods. So, I think in terms of the age of our countries, there is a similarity, which is why it’s interesting to see how that post colonialisation has unfolded. I think there definitely is a difference and a more significant integration of First Nations culture in New Zealand than there is in Australia, lots of really simple things. I feel like definitely in Melbourne, there isn’t anywhere near as much representation. When you get up north there is more, but in Melbourne and Sydney, the big cities, there isn’t as much representation. And I think simple things like, you know, using. Using language pretty regularly in emails and communications and seeing lots of non-English language on signs, that’s a pretty clear sign of there being more than one culture in a space. That representation is really important for the celebration of culture. And yeah, I think Australia, and definitely Melbourne, is a bit behind in that respect.
It’s interesting. As a city, Christchurch holds this reputation as being the most quintessentially colonial city in Aotearoa. And yet of course, the earthquakes have shaken loose a lot of that and have allowed us to recognize the need for better reflection and representation of our indigenous histories and identities in the cityscape. You might have noticed some of that in the architecture and the signage and the public artworks that you have come across. There’s still obviously a long way to go. In your experience, whether or not it’s engaging directly with those narratives, is art in the streets a way to break down accepted or perceived constructions, to explore new ways of thinking? Do you see your work falling into that context, that even if it’s not explicitly political, it’s a rethinking of public space?
Drez: Yeah, I think so. I mean definitely street art and public art has that ability to create representation and engage in the representation of different stories. The more that you see that in signage and architecture and murals and public art, the more that culture is celebrated and the more that culture is less othered, as opposed to very colonial spaces that are all about the more colonial architecture and imagery and signage and language and places where it totally removes any presence of a non-colonial culture. So yeah, definitely public space and the imagery in it plays a massive role in that experience for somebody that’s not from a location. And I think, in terms of my work, it definitely speaks to thinking about using public space in a, I guess, less traditional way. But again, my work really doesn’t speak to these cultural narratives. It speaks more to the narrative of art and street art and contemporary art and the cultural divide between contemporary and urban art. So, I guess it reaches more to that space and that sort of divide of what is highbrow and what is lowbrow, and what spaces are to be used in different ways. I think it sometimes loses a little bit of context when the productions are really high scale and you know, on much larger buildings or there’s lots of infrastructure put in place in terms of access and assistance and these sorts of things and council permits and stuff to do it. But definitely when I was doing more illegal works, it really spoke to that sort of, you know, cross cultural divide between highbrow and lowbrow connotations or conversations of art and where art can be and what art has value.
Right.
Drez: And which people making art have value. That’s another pretty important part to that, I think.
That leads into that discussion of your personal trajectory and coming from the world and background of graffiti and into a career now that straddles aspects of that world with highly contemporary practice. How have you navigated that transition or that trajectory? How much does your work reach into both of those worlds simultaneously? How much influence does that graffiti background still have in your work, and how much is that contemporary approach now influencing your view of graffiti as an art form?
Drez: Well, I think it’s still pretty 50/50. I haven’t really painted any graffiti for quite a while. I always want to, but I just haven’t. I haven’t made the time to be doing that because I’m always doing other things. But I do still think that my love for public space and my desire to paint in public space and to make work that is publicly available and isn’t just sitting in that contemporary art world is just as strong as it’s always been. And that intention, that art is available to people no matter if you have a contemporary art background or if you’ve been taught that sort of history, understand it and have that knowledge, or if you’re just a person that doesn’t even know what the word art means, and you have absolutely no idea. I think I want it to be accessible to everybody because I still believe in the ability to affect change and not necessarily just socio-politically but just by brightening people’s days and creating a different quality of life as such. So yeah, I think both of them still affect me and I still try and bring elements of my street work into the gallery space, like, playing with sprayed textures and that experience of movement and being in space is a really fundamental element of my gallery-based practice.
In terms of your public works, what is the balance between the role of colour and tone and the physical makeup of the space and the impact that has on the geometry of a work?
Drez: It’s balancing the two. I think when you can get the balance bang in the middle, that’s going to make the work that has the most impact in the space, but also feels the most harmonious with the space and really sort of shifts your experience of the entire environment. As opposed to being an image on a wall that simply does its own thing within its own space. If you can integrate the architecture and the geometry of the environment, as well as bringing colours in, then you activate every aspect of the space as opposed to just where you’re working.
One of the things that really struck me watching you work was the beauty of a hand-pulled line, it made me think of that quote from Margaret Kilgallen in Beautiful Losers, where she talks about a wavering hand and a line always being slightly imperfect. Was that something that you always intended as a valuable part of your work, that human element of the process? I imagine a lot of people will look at one of your works and assume it’s very precise and exact, but instead there’s actually real humanity in the process and in the finished article as well. Is that a very intentional thing or is that something that kind of occurred organically?
Drez: No, it’s definitely intentional. I feel like that that human touch is really important to my work. It really assists with giving a sort of vibrational and emotive effect to the work that speaks to people in a really different way. It also speaks to two worlds of art that I really love, which is the 1960s-1950s Greenbergian Modernism and Op Art from that era as well. European Op Art at that time was very crisp and very taped and very hard edge, lots of the modernism was very much focused on the purity of medium and action and painting for the sake of painting and all of these sorts of elements. I really love both those worlds, and I try and straddle a place in the middle where you have all of that emotion and all of that purity of paint, colour being colour and form being form, and that’s what’s beautiful about it. But then also the optical effects of Op Art and that really crisp nature of how colour really affects colour and how lines affect colour and form affects colour. I really try and play with both of those two mega classical worlds of abstract art, to bring them together, but I also put it into a street context to really have that ultra highbrow contemporary connotation mixed with the lowbrow street art-esque connotation as well. It’s straddling all of those lines to create that cross-cultural conversation is really important.
You’ve touched on the way that your work is occupying different spaces, whether it’s the gallery space or the street space. Was the development of your mural approach reflecting studio practice or did the studio practice come from that mural approach? Were they occurring simultaneously or did one feed into the other?
Drez: They were occurring simultaneously, but not side by side for quite a while. So, for a long time I painted graffiti and all the graf I did was just letter-based stuff. There was lots of variation, but it was always exploring different graffiti ideas, quite classical graffiti ideas. But I was doing a lot of abstract art as well that was totally different to the graffiti and had no imagery at all. But really, I had no relationship between the two. Then I started painting abstract art on walls, and as soon as I sort of hit that mark, it went back into my gallery-based approach as well. They were kind of separate for a while, but then I started really enjoying doing something on walls and then I fed that back into my studio practice.
Your studio practice has embraced sculptural approaches as well as wall work. How does the sculptural approach change your thinking? Because you are kind of creating the surface or creating the object for the colour to be applied. How does that three-dimensional approach come out differently from when you’re working in an existing space? Is it more challenging or more freeing? What is the unique attraction of that approach?
Drez: It’s definitely more challenging, I think. So, the sculptural works that I’m predominantly working on at the moment, they also come from works that I was doing on walls. I have a series of works called Chromatic Oscillation, works that are all about lines of colour and varying gradients and planes of colour sitting on top of each other, moving left and right, creating an oscillating and optical effect, dragging you backwards and forwards throughout a wall. And so, the sculptural works, are basically a way of making that in a 3D structure that made that effect happen even more, really trying to accentuate it. This movement of colour and the movement of the person and the space the person holds within the room as they view the work. And so, I mean, as with all of my work, I just keep taking one step and exploring and extrapolating upon the previous idea and trying to make that more obvious in the next idea. The sculptures, you know, really do situate people and make your presence felt, as opposed to the artwork’s presence, necessarily. And I think that really leans back into the idea of wanting art to be for people, so people can have an experience and having it in public space and giving that experience to people and really trying to harness and exemplify that. That’s what is important. I think that’s the relationship. And, you know, they’re definitely more difficult. They’re definitely quite a lengthy process and there are lots of logistics involved in making them happen as opposed to doing paintings on walls. But, you know, they really do get a strong effect, and that’s what’s important.
Well, you’re about to leave for the airport, so I want to thank you so much, not just for the chance to chat, but for the artwork that you’ve left the city as well, I hope we see you back soon!
To see more of Drez’s incredible work, from public art to incredible studio productions, follow @d.r.e.z on Instagram or check out his profile at Magma Galleries…
It is hard to believe that three months have flown by since the 2025 Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival coloured our city’s walls with a flurry of activity and energy! A triumphant return for the mural festival, the 2025 iteration drew huge crowds, enthusiastic media coverage and, of course, a collection of impressive artworks that further cement Ōtautahi Christchurch as the urban art destination of Aotearoa. From colourful abstractions, striking portraits, and bold typography to sky-high surrealism, complex graffiti and poignant cultural narratives, Flare covered a range of bases stylistically and thematically. With more than 19 large-scale works and a series of activations, Flare 2025 was indicative of a city completely enamoured with turning our streets into canvasses and embracing possibility!
We thought that with the cold months now well and truly here, it would be an ideal time to bring some fire and warm some souls with a reminder of Flare’s goodness – so join us for a little stroll through memory lane with a visual recap of Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival 2025!
Dcypher’s Urban Abstract was a stop on a Watch This Space guided tour… As was Jessie Rawcliffe’s Ophelia, where the artist talked to the tour group.The tour also took in the massive work by Jacob Yikes, Aotearoa’s tallest mural.Haser’s Manawa Pou, Manawa Ora in progress.The master, Dr Berst in action….Drez’s St Asaph Street work is a stunning addition. Jen Heads’ window installation at The Drifter…Jessie Rawcliffe’s stuinning Ophelia, Colombo Street.YSEK’s studio Ghibli inspired work on Worcester Boulevard.YSEK’s work featured a collaboration with fellow FSA crew member Seven Eleven.Ling’s Elias, May and Kairau on the side of Child Sister.Fluro’s I Look To The Hills is an evocative landmark framed by the imposing Te Kaha.Haser, Fluro, Berst, Jessie Rawcliffe and Ling joined the 2025 Artist Panel.Everything kicked off with the FSA X DTR X BRS Production Wall on Colombo Street. Always insightful, Berst chatted with tour groups. Haser’s Manawa Pou, Manawa Ora completed.Nick Lowry completed two works for Flare, highlighting his prodigious output…Nick Lowry’s second wall, in progress…FOUL from the Flare Market Graffiti Wall…TWICE from the Flare Market Graffiti Wall…Miiekes, Klaudia Bartos, Hambone, Tom Kerr and Ekos on the Flare Market Tattoo Wall…Jessie Rawcliffe and Devos on the Flare Market Wall…Ling and Berst at the Flare Market Wall.Trystan Cutts and Kyla K and Xact’s collab at the Flare Market Wall.Pest5 for the TMD Crew Jam, Sydenham.
Photo credits: Centuri Chan, Reuben Woods
For specific locations – remember to check out our ever-growing map!
As part of Ōtautahi’s Matariki celebrations, the city’s most iconic heritage building has been illuminated by a powerful projection created by the Offline Collective’s Sam Emerson (Ngāi Tahu) in collaboration with collective members Michael Duggan and Charlie Pitts. Presented by Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival, the Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Project and Offline Collective, Hurihanga transforms the Cathedral’s exterior into a canvas of light, honouring stories of renewal, remembrance, and whakapapa through breathtaking visuals and mātauranga Māori.
An evocative public activation that invites pause, wonder, reflection, conversation and connection, Hurihanga adds meaningful layers to the famed Cathedral to reflect Ōtautahi’s navigation of our past, present and future to reveal our connections to place and each other in recognition of Matariki.
Offline Collective is an Ōtautahi based creative studio specialising in motion graphics, live visuals and immersive installations. Blending design, art and technology, Offline Collective craft bold, immersive visual experiences that integrate cultural narratives into contemporary digital art across a variety of platforms.
Led by Sam Emerson, one of Aotearoa’s most respected digital artists and producers, Offline Collective created Hurihanga to reflect ancestral stories and the significance of Puaka, the star to which Te Waipounamu looks for Matariki. The brightest star in Tautoru (Orion’s Belt), in Māori mythology Puaka’s appearance means Te Waka o Raki is rising to bring loved ones to their final resting place in the celestial kingdom, a reminder to acknowledge those who came before us, but also to celebrate the present, and to dream for the future. Hurihanga harnesses this wairua and draws on the symbolism of the cycles of time, of wind, rain, lightning and the growing, harvesting and storage of food, to create a sprawling, transformative story that takes viewers on a journey far beyond the physical setting.
Suggesting the power of art and the diverse ways we can creatively activate our shared landscape, through the powerful lens of te Aō Māori imagery and storytelling, Hurihanga is a must see! Explore a new way of seeing the heart of the city this winter with this striking collaboration!
Hurihanga has been made possible with the support of a number of donors who supported the Boosted campaign – highlighting the power of community!
We love @larraman’s time lapse of Jacob Yikes’ massive mural on the Distinction for Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival – an insight into the work that goes into such a huge undertaking! Thanks to ChristchurchNZ and @larraman for this incredible footage – and to Flare and Yikes for the vision! Tallest mural in Aotearoa? Completed it mate!
Stay tuned for more Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival recaps!
Watch This Space was proud to host the 2025 artist panel discussion for the Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival. Joined onstage by Haser, Fluro, Berst, Jessie Rawcliffe and Ling, the conversation ranged from cultural influences and connection to place, to graffiti’s lineage, the differences between Melbourne and Ōtautahi and when Ling will finally paint a portrait of Berst! Hosted at Dux Central, the event capped a massive week for the artists and organisers of the Flare Festival. Luckily, in case you missed it, we recorded the event and you can watch it below!
Thanks to Corban Tupou for hosting the live stream and Local Elements for working the sound! We are already looking forward to 2026!
The Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival kicks off on Thursday, 27th February – and it is bringing 10 days of epic street art goodness! With a massive offering of things to do and see, let’s get everything you need to know in one place!
Headline Artists:
Jacob Yikes – Distinction Hotel – Spark Lane side, just off Cathedral Square
Berst – Spark Lane – opposite Jacob Yikes
Jessie Rawcliffe – 566 Colombo Street (on the exterior of Samurai Bowl)
Haser – Ara Campus, Madras Street
Fluro – 282 Cashel Street (Barbadoes Street end)
YSEK7 – 65 Worcester Street (opposite the eastern exterior of the Christchurch Art Gallery)
Nick Lowry – 173 Gloucester Street (Manchester Street end)
Additional Artworks:
Drez (Australia) – 267 St Asaph Street (opposite the Boxed Quarter)
Ling (Australia) – Exterior of Child Sister Cafe, Manchester Street
FSA x DTR x BRS Crew Wall – 490 Colombo Street, Sydenham
Rinley’s Wall – 47 Wordsworth Street, Sydenham
Ikarus x Dcypher – Spark Lane, Distinction Hotel
Additional Activations and Events:
FSA x Flare Pop-Up Exhibition – 10am – 5pm, 1-9 March, 181 High Street
Tattoo Pop-Up with Chez – 1-2 March, 181 High Street – DM @mkeltattooart for bookings
Watch This Space Street Art Tours – 11am & 2pm, 1, 2, 6, 8 & 9 March, departing from The Drifter – book via website/Humanitix
Flare x Watch This Space x Dulux x Duckewe Mural Jam/Mākete/Skate Day – 10am – 4pm, 8 March, Te Pae Green
Watch This Space Artist Panel Talk – 6:30pm, 7 March, Dux Central – tickets via Humanitix
Blackbook Sessions – see Flare website for details
Stencil Workshop – 6pm, 6 March, The Rambler – tickets via Humanitix
After a three year hiatus, the Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival is back for 2025! Featuring seven headline artists creating large-scale murals across the city, more than 50 additional artists contributing to a range of creative activations, street art tours, an artist panel, workshops, a market and an exhibition – this is going to be huge! Oh, and did we mention the creation of Aotearoa’s tallest mural by Jacob Yikes?!?
To mark this return, we caught up with some of the central organising crew – project manager Selina Faimalo, artists Dcypher and Kophie a.k.a Meep, along with our own Reuben Woods to chat about the challenges, the excitement and legacy of Flare!
So, there’s less than a week to go until Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival 2025 kicks off! How are you feeling Selina?
Selina Faimalo: I’m good!
Are you sure?
SF: I feel a bit scattered as there’s so much to do, but it is such an exciting time!
You have already done a lot, Yikes has started his huge mural on the Distinction Hotel, the multi-crew wall in Sydenham is complete, a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff is coming into place… How different has this year been from the 2022 festival?
SF: It’s much easier. There are no Covid restrictions, which has made it a lot easier! With the funding we had already secured, it’s been way easier to get sponsors to get behind it. I guess it’s been okay with walls… Actually, it’s been easy to get the walls, it’s been harder to get concepts approved…
What are the most common challenges with getting concepts approved?
SF: Flare is all about creative freedom, so getting feedback from wall owners and then giving it back to the artists has been hard. We didn’t really have that as much with the first festival.
Do you think that’s because of the new locations or is it a changing sentiment? Street art has to deal those relationships constantly, balancing permission and a process of concession with creative expression. Dcypher, Kophie, as artists how do you navigate those challenges and do those experiences give you more insight when you’re on the ground team helping organise these types of events?
Kophie a.k.a Meep: For me, it’s always important to be able to interpret the brief in my own way, but in doing so I really value working with people and reflecting community, social and environmental issues, which are informed by the research I carry out. Freedom isn’t about painting whatever I want, it’s about responding in meaningful ways to the brief to reflect my ethos as well as the broader community. I think I now get more opportunities to work in that way.
Dcypher, you’re pretty versatile, have you always been willing to go with the flow?
Dcypher: Yeah, that’s always been my approach. I feel like mural art is one of those things that hopefully reflects community, you know if multiple people have input it always has more impact, rather than just doing exactly what I want to do all the time. It can be less impactful to only have one specific viewpoint , not a more wide-ranging perspective.
Ultimately, that is a sign of public art right? It’s this mixture of expression and public conversation, so it’s always walking a tightrope in a way…
D: Exactly it’s like a discussion interpreted into a visual format that can be translated in many ways.
Jacob Yikes begins work on his mural for Flare on the Distinction Hotel
What is it like being on the organisational side of something like this? Obviously, your expertise as artists is super helpful, but how much do you enjoy this side of it and would you rather just be an artist being invited to a festival?
D: Yeah, I would love to be the artist invited to all the festivals and having that creative freedom, but ultimately at the same time I actually like all the groundwork and boots-on-the-ground stuff that has to be done, just having a stake in helping other artists achieve their goals as mural artists is something I enjoy.
K: I’ve got a long history with event management, project management, and working with Selina, so I really like it, doing all the design and stuff like that, it’s fun. Tiring but fun. I organised the exhibition for the last festival as well.
2025 is the second incarnation of Flare, how has it evolved from that first iteration? We have already mentioned that the first festival was hampered by Covid, which changed some of the plans, is this version more like what you always envisaged for Flare?
SF: Yeah definitely. I think we have a solid team now behind Flare. I was a complete noob during the first Flare, I’d done events and stuff, but not street art festivals, obviously, having Kophie and Dcypher and Ikarus help me learn about the culture, I think I understand it all more now…
As much as you can anyway, right! Nothing is ever straight forward, right? There is always some issue or logistical problem, and this festival has had its fair share. I mean, creating one of New Zealand’s biggest murals is always going to create a lot of problems! Then you’ve got the relationship between the creative side and the commercial side. What other challenges have come up and how have you dealt with them?
SF: Often the walls to paint are easy to get, but the land next to the wall you are painting are hard and can be a barrier to getting across the line. Then there’s navigating relationships with who’s in the festival, trying to be inclusive, trying to stretch the budget. Everyone wants to be part of the festival, everyone wants to be involved, but you only have so much money and space…
D: Having done previous festivals, obviously it builds up the reputations of all the artists and other people who want to get involved. It shows the greater community, the people that might be paying for murals, the quality you can get. It shows off artists to the wider world…
SF: With Flare and my involvement organising large scale murals in between, I can understand what it means to organise a mural, but it’s so niche, there’s not that many people I can ask, it’s a very random job. But it’s really cool being a part of the process, like how much paint you need to order, what equipment you need. With Yikes’ mural, it was a logistical nightmare, I feel like now I could organise any scale mural, because that one is like three large lifts and abseilers and a massive projector that weighs 70 kilos! So, I think having a good team, a good community, is really key.
Talking about involving people, how did the seven headline artists come to be selected? We’ve got Nick Lowry, Jessie Rawcliffe, Jacob Yikes and Ysek7, all from Ōtautahi, and then you’ve got the three out of town artists, Fluro, Haser and Berst, what were the key reasons for selecting those artists?
D: I think there is always a desire to get new people opportunities who haven’t been part of Flare before, but definitely, there should also be a focus on well-established Christchurch artists…
K: It’s always important to have a diversity of styles.
SF: Berst is a key figure in the graffiti world and is generally just awesome to work with. We always have an approach that ensures graffiti is a big part of the festival and having Berst as one of the headliners achieves that, Fluro both has a connection here, having grown up in Ōtautahi, and she also comes from a graffiti background. Haser, has that grounding as well, but he also brings a totally unique style, infusing his work with his experience as a Māori artist. I feel like we need more representation of Māori art works locally…
It becomes about a public discourse, right? It’s the same with graffiti, which is seen as this thing to chastise, so incorporating it is really important to help the public to understand it and what impact it can have. It’s about acknowledging and creating a discourse about public performance. From a personal point of view for each of you, what are you most looking forward to in Flare?
SF: For it to start!
K: The opening and closing parties!
SF: I think just seeing it all happen. As soon as everyone’s got all their paint and they’ve got their lifts and it’s can to wall, paint brush to wall, and I can actually see what’s happening visually, rather than just on my computer and on my phone!
D: I think getting lots of artists in one spot together is just really cool. Starting conversations and having an exchange of ideas and approaches to muralism for artists is a massive draw card for the New Zealand mural art scene in general, it’s not something that happens a lot, especially having everyone coming from all ends of the country.
K: Just hanging out with everyone, like in the last festival, when we got to scooter around on the Lime Scooters and see everyone’s progress, hang out and collaborate like Dcypher said. There’s such a wide mixture of things happening this time as well, so it’s like every day there is going to be stuff going on…
D: I think that the market day [on Saturday, March 8 at Te Pae Green] is probably going be a highlight for me, and of course, creating the largest mural in New Zealand!
How much thought goes into how this event reflects Ōtautahi’s street art standing? Obviously, there are some really good events around the country, like South Sea Spray, Graffiato, Boon, how important is it that Flare, just like Christchurch, has a unique vibe and feel, rather than it sort of replicating what’s already happening elsewhere?
SF: I guess it’s co-created, I think that’s the whole the thing about Flare, it’s created by everyone if that makes sense, it’s Dcypher, it’s Kophie, it’s Ikarus, it’s you, it’s everyone. It’s us trying to make it happen together…
D: I think just geographically the city’s layout and architecture is perfect for a thriving mural scene especially after the earthquakes it just really put Christchurch at the top of the list for muralism in New Zealand. All the prior festivals, Rise, Spectrum, all the stuff that OiYOU! did, you know everything that came before any of this started is super important as to where it’s going to go and why it is the way it is right now. All the work that everyone’s put in beforehand is finally culminating with Flare.
K: The incorporation of graffiti as well, is unique.
There’s a sense of authenticity because Flare is representing something that is organically and authentically happening in the city already. It’s incorporating those parts of the culture that matter in a way that maybe some other places are unable to do for various reasons. We’ve been through so much that half of the sell has already been made, its established. We need this type of event because we’ve got such an embedded urban art culture here. That goes along with making this event work, that sort of authentic, organic aspect, it’s a response to our city’s history, and it feels quite powerful.
SF: I think as well like I don’t know other cities, but everyone’s pretty easy and knows each other, it’s not too hard to get people to work together.
D: The Christchurch scene has always been like that, even back in the day all the different graffiti crews, even though there were obviously conflicts, more often than not everyone just got along and painted together…
Detail of the FSA X DTR X BRS Crew Production on Colombo Street in Sydenham
That is important because everyone is pulling in the same direction, everyone wants it to be successful rather than having people wanting to tear it down. Kophie, you were at an important age when like the likes of Rise and Spectrum took place and you got to be part of those festivals, how much of an influence did those experiences have on your pathway to becoming the artist you are now?
K: I was already writing graffiti and stuff, but just hanging out with all those international artists was just really inspiring, so I kind of like forced my way in there to volunteer and hang out with everyone, I just hung around and didn’t stop hanging around people until they let me paint!
SF: That’s how you make friends!
Do you hope that Flare will do that for another generation?
K: I hope so, but a lot of people don’t want to put in the volunteer work, or they just expect things to be handed to them, so get in there and do stuff…
For you Dcypher, this must be so pleasing, because when you were coming up we didn’t have these types of events here in Christchurch, it must be awesome to see that that evolution from your point of view.
D: Yeah, I mean half the reason I moved to the States was because I didn’t necessarily see a career path here strictly painting murals . I knew Project Legit wouldn’t have longevity with the City Council’s viewpoint it wasn’t necessarily going to fund it forever, so it was time to leave. So coming back to Christchurch and seeing how much it had developed after the earthquakes was awesome…
Surely a programme like Project Legit would have benefited so much from having something like Flare, because it is a pathway, right? Project Legit was helping young graffiti writers explore positive outcomes, but where could they go from there at that time?
D: Yeah, at the time, I don’t think a lot of people saw a direct career path. I definitely did early on, but all the other guys I would work with, not many of them saw that same career path, everyone just wanted to keep it just strictly graffiti and unadulterated which is obviously the core ethos of graffiti culture. I think some people had that line of sight and a lot of people have differing viewpoints, it was either something that faded in their twenties, but now new generations can see a clear career path, even if they may not be hyper focused on it, they can still kind of see it as a potential direction.
So, how can people get involved this year in Flare?
SF: Come to everything!
D: Support your local artists, buy stuff! Exchange ideas!
SF: Go to the show, come to the talks and learn about the headlining artists, go on the tours and learn about what’s there already, volunteer…
D: Just bring life back into the city. After the earthquakes, all the malls took people away from the city, so this is a massive draw card to bring people into the city and make it feel alive.
Flare Ōtautahi Street Art Festival kicks off on February 28th, with the programme running through March 9th. Stay tuned for full Flare coverage – including the full programme, interviews with artists and updates! Get excited!
After several years of developing, planning and piecing together the logistics, Watch This Space was proud to finally bring the Little Street Art Festival to life in Otautahi Christchurch in late 2023!
The festival was conceived as a platform for alternative approaches to street art, especially smaller scale and materially diverse practices. As such, serves as a point of difference from established mural festivals and provides artists who either don’t fit the profile of large-scale muralism or want to push to new directions with their work. For the inaugural festival, we gathered nine local creatives, a mixture of established names and newer artists and helped them take their work to the streets – Jacob Yikes, Ghostcat, Ikarus, Jessie Rawcliffe, Bloom, Dark Ballad, teethlikescrewdrivers, Nathan Ingram and Kophie a.k.a Meep, all contributing whimsical, meaningful and striking pieces. The installations ranged from paintings to sculptural pieces, interactive and participatory approaches and ephemeral interventions. With over 50 individuals pieces scattered throughout the city, the festival encouraged exploration and new ways of looking. In addition to the featured artworks, the festival also presented a programme of free events, including walking tours, an artist panel discussion, treasure hunts, workshops and activations (including Tink’s installation at festival sponsor Westfield Riccarton). We were blown away with the response to the festival and we can’t wait to bring the Little Street Art Festival back soon! For more information, check out our website: https://www.littlestreetartfestival.co.nz/ – but for now – check out some of our favourite pictures captured by festival photographer Centuri Chan…
A massive thank you our sponsors: Westfield Riccarton, Antony & Mates, Phantom Billstickers, Christchurch City Council, Toi Otautahi, Creative Communities and all our Boosted donors!
Almost five years since Street Prints Ōtautahi, Christchurch’s last significant street art mural festival, Flare Street Art Festival provided a welcome shot in the arm for a city with an established reputation as an urban art destination. The brainchild of ARCC, a urban activation collective of local business people and place makers, Flare burst into life with a roster of seven headline artists painting huge murals and a flurry of additional activities.
Flare was built around the selection of massive new murals that would transform the SALT District and surrounding environs, landmarks that showed an impressive diversity, each artist flexing their unique styles, interests and intentions with creative freedom.
Koryu’s massive mural
The largest mural, on the side of the newly renovated Cotters Lane building, was completed by Koryu, a Japanese artist who has been based in Aotearoa since the 2020 lockdown, living in Geraldine but travelling across the country to paint murals. While relatively new to urban art, picking up a spray can just three years ago after visiting Melbourne, Koryu’s impressive depiction of fierce Niō warriors, guardian statues of Buddhist temples in Japan shows his quick development. The circular motif in the middle of the image suggesting the infinite quality of existence, the warriors themselves representing the beginning and end of all things (the open and closed mouths symbolic of the in and out breath, the first and last characters of the alphabet). The huge work, over 160 square metres, was a massive undertaking, filled with detailed musculature and gestural painting and aware of the shared experiences of Christchurch earthquakes and the Tohuku earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011 when both regions were struck by devastating natural disasters, making this work, a gift of guardians, even more resonant.
Wongi ‘Freak’ Wilson
Nearby, overlooking Manchester Street, local artist Wongi ‘Freak’ Wilson displayed his technical skill with a vibrant depiction of a woman wearing rose-tinted glasses and chewing bubble gum. The pink gum exploding into a cloud of pop culture references, a baseball cap, a paint roller, headphones and more bursting out of the cloud. The combination of realism and pop-esque cartoon work a summation of Wongi’s style. The upbeat energy of the work infecting an area that still bares the scars of the city’s ongoing .
Detail of Kell Sunshine’s mural
Tucked down Memory Lane, behind the imposing SALT Mural by Paul Walters and Dcypher in Evolution Square, Gisborne artist Kell Sunshine added a rolling, lyrical mural, a beautiful contrast to the architectural and pared-back piece around the corner. Floral forms blooming and unfurling around the phrase ‘Take a walk on the wild side’, Sunshine’s mural reminds us of the need to break from convention and embrace our ‘wild side’ – a literal depiction of nature amidst the urban jungle. The 70s vibe is relaxed and the somewhat secluded placement allows for the viewer to stop and absorb the message before returning to the bustle of the city.
Meep on St Asaph Street
On St Asaph Street, homegrown talent Meep produced the largest work of her career, with a stylised self-portrait against a bright orange backdrop. The massive image shows the artist, with a backpack filled with paint, a roller and a blackbook, walking along the tracks (a traditional graffiti hot-spot and suggested by the large roller piece behind the artist), headphones plugged into a television-headed representation of hip-hop music – her constant companion (the homage to hip-hop cemented with the Kangol bucket hat and the MF Doom and Wu Tang Clan t-shirts). The strong representation of a female graffiti writer illuminating an often marginalised presence in a predominantly male sub-culture.
Ikarus on Manchester Street
On the corner of Manchester and Welles Street, local legend Ikarus of the DTR Crew recounted his own experiences in graffiti through the lens of an AR video game (a cartoon version of the artist shown in full AR goggle mode in the corner). The levels of the game move through the stages of graffiti, from tags to throw-ups and finally ascending to masterpieces, the obstacles and intricacies thrown in as well. The shout-out to traditional graffiti an important inclusion in a forum where the culture is often excluded in favour of birds and buildings. The shout out to the legendary Jungle acknowledging the legacy of those who have come before and the important role of mentorship through example.
Olive by Swiftmantis
In the rear of the Little High car park on St Asaph Street, Palmerston North artist Swiftmantis continued his series of ‘Stray Stories’ with a huge depiction of black cat Olive, her green eyes surveying the surrounding area. The amazing detail reveals the feline’s character, her tattered ear a sign of her survival. Currently with the Cats Protection League of Christchurch. Olive, perhaps now the city’s most famous cat, is still looking for her forever home, the work serving to highlight her situation and to celebrate the work done by the Protection League. The image has already stopped hundreds in their tracks, wowed at the production and enamoured with the beautiful, majestic animal.
Elliot Francis Stewart’s mural closed the festival
The final work, located on Manchester Street, was delayed when Elliot Francis Stewart was unable to make his way to Ōtautahi until the final (or at least the final official) day of the festival. Renowned as a supremely talented illustrator, Stewart drew inspiration from Christchurch’s ‘Garden City’ moniker to depict a sweetly nostalgic scene of a shovel and bucket in a garden. The electric colour scheme of blue, yellow and magenta highlights the intricate detail, the leaves, bark and even tiny lizards occupying the serene setting. It is a show stopper that draws you in, your eyes led across the incredible detail of the wall.
FUEGOS joined the Graffiti Jam
While these murals were the central focus of Flare, there was plenty more going on across the extended two week programme. Just prior to the official launch, Dcypher, Ghostcat and Dr Suits installed an anti-war 3D mural – an oversized Molotow pen fixed to the wall appearing to be the tool used to scrawl over the image of a tank in bright pink – a peace sign and the declaration ‘Make Art Not War’ defacing the symbol of military force. Just around the corner, Flare made use of a High Street shop as a pop-up gallery, featuring local and visiting artists, an array of art and apparel available. The pop-up served as the central hub for the festival, with artists hanging out and passers-by drawn in (our Watch This Space guided tours also departed from the pop-up space, while the Watch This Space Artist Panel was held at 12 Bar on St Asaph Street). An unassuming High Street space hosting a projection work, a collaboration between Fiksate Gallery and the Offline Collective, added a dynamic night-time presence to the festival. The BOXed Quarter’s collection grew with the ‘Wahine Takeover’; Jessie Rawcliffe, Jen-Heads, Berlin and MKA adding fresh paintings to the panels. The final Saturday of the festival saw over two dozen artists take over the lane ways surrounding popular bar Smash Palace with a graffiti jam, artists from different cities and generations lifting the veil from graffiti’s often mysterious presence as visitors could watch the paint being sprayed on the wall. Finally, on the last weekend, Billens Lane, next to Little High, received a make-over with fresh hoardings painted by Jacob Yikes, Dcypher, YSEK, Chile One, Ikarus, Tepid and Bols, adding further diversity to the collection of Flare works.
YSEK and Chile One on Billens Lane
With over 40 new works of art painted across the city, and over 30 artists involved across the festival, Flare served to connect the dots as an event that was for the city and the culture. This is an important element of such an event, recognising the need to support local talent and provide opportunities of varying scales, to raise the profile of urban art and foster the seeds of the city’s creative foundations. Of course, with new incarnations will come new challenges, from finding fresh walls to the massive task of finding money, but Flare has made a promising start, and we are already looking forward to 2023!
