Art – Watch This Space

A Home Away From Home – Jay ‘Daken’ Skelton at Ronald McDonald House

For over 20 years, Ronald McDonald House Christchurch, located on Cashel Street, has provided a ‘home-away-from-home’ for families travelling to Ōtautahi for medical treatment. A welcoming space for whānau to find respite from hospital rooms, Ronald McDonald House provides warm hospitality in tough times, a truly vital service that removes further stress for families already dealing with so much.

The Duke Festival 2026, Carve and Stoked — From Surf to Street Art

For ten years The Duke Festival has celebrated surf and skate culture through the lens of community and inclusion, as well as cultural and artistic events — most notably for us, the Stoked exhibition and Carve street art installation. Both of them feature familiar and emerging names, connecting the festival with the worlds of street art and graffiti as well as broader artistic worlds. For any event, especially one with the scale of The Duke, to thrive for a decade, it takes a lot of work behind the scenes — securing funding, bringing ideas to life, managing artists and participants, promoting and more — and on the bustling opening night, we were lucky enough to chat with two of the figures (and Watch This Space friends) who have tirelessly worked to bring The Duke’s artistic events to reality: head of the festival’s arts programming and Stoked curator Georgia Harmon, and Carve organiser Dark Ballad.

TUNE! with Jonny Waters

We welcome Ōhinehou Lyttelton based artist Jonny Waters as our latest contributor to TUNE! Jonny is one of the founding figures behind Ōtepoti Hip Hop Hustle – a celebration of the culture’s various realms, and can sometimes (maybe) be found spinning tracks at a certain port village spot, so it is no surprise music is a vital ingredient in his creative profile. But it isn’t just hip hop – like his visual art practice, Jonny’s musical influences extend beyond beats, into the energy of punk, the atmosphere of indie, and a selection of classics. Read on to discover his album selections as our artist-created playlist continues to grow…

The Little Street Art Festival 2024 – A Recap of Aotearoa’s Most Unique Street Art Festival!

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.

Prints and Beats – Dark Ballad x Gothic Crash @ Flying Nun Records

On Friday 18th June, Ōtautahi’s ‘master of the dark arts’ Dark Ballad will present a range of new works, including prints and one-of-a-kind hand-printed tees, in an exhibition at Flying Nun Records’ new store at 143 Tuam Street. Alongside the visual works by Dark Ballad, DJ Crash Gothic will also spin a musical set – making this a perfect way to warm up in the midst of a Christchurch winter! Dark Ballad has been building his reputation as a visual force, with his striking print work, from posters in the streets to gallery pieces and record covers, recognisable for their strong graphic qualities and evocative imagery. This presentation of new work, including a range of collaborations with local creatives, is sure to be fire!

Prints and Beats – Dark Ballad X Crash Gothic @ Flying Nun Records, 5pm-7pm, Friday 18 June, 2025

The Dark Countdown Begins! An Interactive Installation by Centuri Chan

Centuri Chan is a multi-faceted creative – one of the forces (excuse the pun, it will make sense later…) behind the Humans of Christchurch Ōtautahi project, he is a photographer, content creator, Lego block master, and, importantly, a ‘Star Wars guy’. In his upcoming project Dark Countdown, he will fuse his fixation on a galaxy far, far away with a visual commentary on the waste created by mass commercial marketing and short-term collectible fads. The result will be an interactive installation that is an impressive patch work image, and a deeper commentary on contemporary consumerism and capitalism. We took the chance to let Centuri fill us in on this intriguing project, giving us an insight into the concept and execution…

Postcard from Mexico

Mexico is a hotbed of colourful culture – from the heritage of Aztec history, the muralist movement, the folkloric expressions, energetic graffiti and more recently, the emergence of a contemporary mural style infused with all of these influences… Last year we were lucky enough to spend some time in Mexico, visiting Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta and capturing some arty goodness. It can’t be understated how massive Mexico City is, bustling and colourful, the juxtaposition of traditional graffiti, fun street art, murals and public art a reflection of the city’s diversity. With only a couple of days to explore, much of the art we found was in the Condesa area where we stayed, but we also were able to witness a huge amount of art as we travelled outside the city to the impressive pyramids of Teotihuacán, murals, slogan typography and of course the frescoes of the ancient Aztec city itself. Puerto Vallarta is renowned as a bright, vibrant destination, and the collection of murals throughout the city most certainly adds to that profile – often displaying elements of local culture and history…

Watch This Space presents: Doodle Session, Episode 1 – with teethlikescrewdrivers

Our new Doodle Session series is a deep dive into the creative process of some of our favourite artists. We sit down and let the creative energy flow as they draw, doodle and mark a page, all while we ask a few questions and explore what makes them tick, the role drawing plays, and how it all comes together.

Episode one of our Doodle Sessions features none other than teethlikescrewdrivers – whose energy is evident in the way he annotates our conversation with drawings, from school chairs to pencils, self-portraits to phrases – check it out and get inspired!

Keep an eye out for future episodes on our YouTube channel!

Daken – Garage Sale with Lucky Dips @ Absolution

Kiwis love a good garage sale. Maybe it is the curiosity. Maybe it is the potential nostalgia. Maybe it is the chance to rifle through someone’s discarded belongings in the hope of finding a unique treasure. Maybe we just love the thought of a bargain that cuts out the middle man.

Ōtautahi creative Daken, known for his bootleg toys and funky, humorous illustrative style, is drawing on the power of garage sales to inspire his forthcoming show Garage Sale with Lucky Dips, opening May 13th at Absolution. Daken describes the show as an exhibition of nostalgia, Kiwiana, trash and treasures, all presented through the lens of a good old fashioned garage sale. We caught up with Daken ahead of the show to find out what we can expect and how the idea came to fruition…

I know you are always busy making, creating and generally tinkering, but when was your last solo show?
I had my first solo show way back in 2021, on my birthday actually, which was pretty exciting. That show was almost exclusively a bootleg toy show (with the exception of a couple paintings). I had only been in the toy-making scene for a year at that stage so I wanted to really push what I was doing in that space. I feel like Garage Sale is more integrated with everything else I do, coming together for a more varied experience.

How did the idea for Garage Sale come to you? I know you have an Instagram profile that focusses on handmade garage sale signs…
Absolution asked if I woukld like to have a show there (shout out to Rochelle!). I always have show concepts and ideas popping up in my head. The Garage Sale idea had been fermenting for a wee while, and given the opportunity at Absolution, it felt right. I do indeed run an Instagram profile that posts pictures of garage sale signs, I started it back in 2019. Garage sales have always had a special place in my heart. Having a background in graffiti, the idea of guerrilla marketing through a kind of typographic graffiti folk art really interested me. No one sign is the same, they are always made with random materials, and the focus is to just get the message across: ‘Come here, on this date, to look through my old crap and give me cash for it.’ I felt at the time that I needed to document them because, like graffiti, they are such a temporary thing. The Instagram page (@garagesails) was a big seed that helped lead to this show.

What can we expect to find at Garage Sale with Lucky Dips?
A Lot of trash, treasure and nostalgia, haha! The show started with the idea of garage sales but slowly evolved into sub genres of nostalgia and identity through the lens of Kiwiana. So, you can expect to see all of these ideas drawn on paper, painted on items, displayed on thrifted clothes, made into toys from other recycled and broken toys and much more…

It sounds like Garage Sale will reflect your diverse practice…
I like to think of myself as a jack-of all-trades, master-of-none when it comes to my work. Jumping between materials, mediums and ideas has always been my thing. I use the name Daken’s Emporium because I can’t seem to stick to one thing. The idea of emporiums and garage sales seems to fit the way my work in general is very eclectic in nature. I get an odd feeling, dare I say a sense of magic, when there is a culmination of things that come together to make a bigger narrative. I love how everything has its own history, has a story of when it was made and how it came to be in some place with other things that can be so different, somehow all winding up in the same place… Did I just describe the human experience?! One of the biggest challenges that kicks at the anxieties in the back of my head is it all not working. I look at my contemporaries and other artists and wish that I could pick something and stick with it. But the truth is, trying new things is always fun and exciting for me. So defining my own personal style and voice within so many avenues of work, while challenging, is in the end, who I am.

Do you have final message for people who might want to come and see Garage Sale?
For those that intend on coming to the show, have a fun time! I hope I have managed to capture at least a small fraction of that magic I talked about, even for a short period before it’s all separated and taken down, just like a garage sale sign. Also, come say what’s up! I would love to chat about the work, hear your thoughts, and discuss who you think would win in a fight between Swamp Thing and Superman! Oh, and don’t forget to pick up a lucky dip!

Daken’s Garage Sale with Lucky Dips opens on Monday 13th May, 6pm – 8pm, at Absolution Tattoo and Piercing, The Arts Centre – Te Matatiki Toi Ora

SHOWTIME! Jacob Yikes – Escapism @ Fiksate, Friday 31 March

Jacob Yikes’ latest offering, Escapism, opened at Fiksate at the end of March. Yikes has been consistently producing a coherent and yet constantly evolving body of work for the last decade, each new show adding elements and refining his methods and concerns. Escapism, a series of 8 paintings, feels like the work of an artist who is at the top of their game. The paintings, full of gestural flashes, subtle touches and haunting imagery, are alive, directing the viewer further into the realm the artist has been diligently constructing, created with an undeniable confidence. Our friend, the talented Lydia Hannah Thomas, was there on opening night to capture the crowds and the sublime body of work, enjoy!

Photo Credits: Lydia Hannah Thomas

If you have a show coming up, let us know – we would love to cover it here on SHOWTIME!