With the upcoming refresh of the three ‘permanent’ art cans at the St Asaph Street Giant Spray Cans site, we have been thinking a lot about these unique surfaces and their evolving appearance. While the three cans to the west serve as commissioned installations, with a revolving roster of artists and crews decorating the cylindrical forms, the other three cans, situated to the middle of the space (closer to the basketball court) are a type of legal wall space, an open source option for people to adorn with markings and makings of all kinds. The impact of each set can be strikingly different. The cohesive ‘permanent’ designs serve as aspirational inspiration, but the more haphazard patina of the ‘legal wall’ cans can be equally as interesting – from signals of presence to gestating visual ideas, the cacophony of tags, handwritten messages, characters, patterns and icons are a wide gamut that becomes a thick layer of paint. The legal cans change as quickly as the weather in Ōtautahi, new chapters are constantly added. So we decided to put some of our favourite finds from the history of these iconic cans together (from both their current location and the previous Lichfield Street setting). The selection of images here features local talent from Ōtautahi and artists who have visited the city and left their mark on the metal surfaces. Some examples form part of initiatives and projects, others were created independently, but in each case, they are examples of how the unique approach offered by the Giant Cans affords a space for creative and restless energy to manifest… The outward appearance of the cans is chaotic – intentionally so, because they represent the multiplicity of voices in any city – when they change constantly, they are simply a reflection of our shared landscape. So, while many of these examples have disappeared under fresh layers, that is exactly how it should be – after all, a city never stops…
