This edition of Street Treats is eclectic and varied, ranging from playful whimsy to blunt anti-establishment messaging. That ultimately is the beauty of guerrilla practice (or in the case of some of these works, permissioned but free from curatorial censorship), the opportunity to say what you want, how you want. As contemporary muralism has taken over the popular image of ‘street art’, it has also transformed the imagery and ideology deployed. While this still results in some pretty stunning works occupying our skylines and there are, admittedly, different levels of input and freedom, it is left to the smaller interventions to speak in an unfiltered voice. The content is not always explicitly political, but the act itself is, always. So whether it is a beautiful surreal flower sprouting from a concrete pillar, a constantly recurring pencil, playfully collaged scenarios, vibrant names or scrawled messages that question the colonial history of our city, look and listen, they are speaking to you and about us…
Lyds’ flowers are resplendent in their fantastical glory.
Teeth Like Screwdrivers knows the power of a splash of yellow, and it looks like Bexie Lady’s ghost does too…
While also recognising it can all be pointless.
Spoons and clouds and cats and Doctors… A doorway brings everyone along – Vez, PK, Vesil, Catscult, Dr Suits and more…
Spyrit keeps it subtle.
Cape of Storms issues a warning.
MFC Lowt’s surreal collage’s poke fun at pretty much everything…
…including glam rock
Trailer park philosophy from Ray…
Thinking…
Togo and Bongo slaps
SENZ slaps are some of the best going…
You cannot stop what you cannot see…
AIMS along the Moorhous Ave tracks
A busy track is always a sight to behold…
Weks in Bromley where houses can be interesting…
Morks out country…
New Vesil with the retro charo…
GOMSER
LEGO in New Brighton.
A tribute to JUNGLE by Ikarus, Drows and Semagol
Smeagol goes from the ground up.
How are we lads? Nice arrows…
Lost Boy’s illustrative drawings are always a treat…
No problems…
Cheros One’s sculptural installations are fresh, from tags like this to his rockets and fauna…
Googly eyed stencil cat with an on point message…
A kiwi paste up by Parisian artist The End of Animals reminds us of our heavy footprint.
While this kiwi seeks to escape…
Bols gets in on the crypto craze as Yasiin Bey looks on…
Nemo stencil tags…
and slaps.
Jacob Yikes and the spectre of death
While the Rolleston statue gets a blunt reminder of our history.
If you have submissions for upcoming Street Treats volumes tag us on Instagram or email your pictures to [email protected]!
High and low, under and above, inside and outside, protected and exposed. The city presents innumerable contrasts, all of which can provide opportunities for intrepid artists. From graffiti writers marking spaces no one else sees as useful or functional, to street artists creating moments of engagement in unexpected places, a city is always full of sites to explore and alter. From rooftops to wooden hoardings, lampposts to stop signs, revealing, playful and existential interventions can be found across and beyond our lines of sight. This diversity of locations is matched by the diversity of practice, with no material form invalid or off-limits; Chero One’s rocket ships, painted scrolls, or even hot sauce-filled buttons warning you not to do what you so urgently want to do. Always mimicking the visual culture that we come to expect, such interventions play on our tendency toward assumption. Popular culture rifs depend on your recognition of trends and eras, like digital memes, requiring some savvy understanding. Anti-advertising grasps the ubiquity and absurdity of commercial communications. Graffiti is an expected response to our dictum that success means having your photo on a billboard or the back of a bus. Ultimately, the streets are full of life, both official and unofficial, you just have to look closer and further, higher and lower, under and above, and start to sort out the relationships…
Toothfish Posters make the existential environmental discourse public
While small stickers remind us of some enduring truths
All of you, most of you, some of you, none of you… The words of a Lord Huron song evoke the changing nature of relationships on a small scroll banner, best encountered at night
Lost among the barbed wire of the city
Mike Beer’s Do Not Press buttons appeared across the city, daring you to disobey (those that did were met with an ooze of sriracha sauce)
Cheros’ rocket ships require closer inpection on take off…
And as the fungi grows…
Funky traffic management by Akeem the African Dream, a paste-up by Bols
Step to the Exit keeping heads above the clouds
One really has to wonder about the impending end of the world some days…
The passage of time can make for the best curation (featuring Bongo, PK, Teeth Like Screwdrivers, Cape of Storms, Morepork and more)
As can carelessness.
So it helps to break things down and start over, maybe with a plan (like Teeth Like Screwdrivers)
And then just find your place in the world
Analogue memes, with Vez, Teeth Like Screwdrivers, LARFN, and Bexie Lady
Vez’s spoon radiates with light
Lyds’ flowers are a simple, stylised, beautiful presence in the urban setting
Cape of Storms invites us all to Taco Tuesday, where the conversation is always frank
While MFC Lowt perfects the art of glam rock…
Brandon Flowers gets political…
I can’t see anything.
Something so kiwi about this… Suzy Cato and burn-outs
Ghost Cats haunt the city
In New Brighton, the Couplands Laneway stays fresh, this time with work by TBE crew (PK, Oxy, Sucker, Foul, Vesil)
Location, location, location (Vesil, Look)
Juxtapostion, juxtaposition, juxtaposition (Dofey and PNS)
It’s all about angles with Vesal and Dregs
Fuk Toes…
Keep your distance, but always know where you are (IMK)
The concept behind the Street Treats series is to reflect the diverse expressions on the walls of the city beyond the large scale permissioned murals, reaching into the traditions of urban art culture’s roots as a subversive, rebellious and independent art movement. Of course, it gets tiresome to use terms like rebellious for an artistic culture that is thoroughly mainstream now, but it is important to remember the potential of these types of expressions as both visual messages and tactical invasions of our heavily designed environments. Commentators (often those attempting to defend the ‘art world’ by dismissing street art, as if they are actually in competition) can often charge street art with a vacuity, and as such a lack of conceptual heft and valid commentary. However, the point is as much about the manner of expression as the content – the act is the message. There are of course exceptions, explicitly political messages that favour bludgeoning bluntness over sophisticated subtlety. The reason for such a decision is another aspect of street art’s aesthetic – the audience must be commandeered – they are not arriving inside a white cube with an idea they will be confronted, but instead engaged in their daily activities, necessitating an immediacy. Of course, in this type of situation, even a lack of message can impact a viewer, by simply adding an air of uncertainty and inquisitiveness to a stroll through a city. To that end, the selections in this volume run from wide-ranging political commentaries to nostalgic popular culture references, and importantly, the intervention into our surrounding environments, making use of the spaces and fixtures that we often take for granted, revealing the potential for transformation…
Bols’ retro stencil reminds to keep an eye out…
While this Monty Python referencing stencil by an unknown artist in Lyttelton suggests the obscene consumption of our time.
Andrew J Steel’s dog character blends into the brickwork
The circular forms on these concrete blocks make for perfect Jen Heads
And ‘Buff Bluff’ pencils by Teeth Like Screwdrivers
Whose stickers are increasingly using clever colour camouflage and techniques to get ever higher
Bols’ retro wrestling paste ups draw on the awful stereotypes we often don’t understand in our youth, from a Samoan man playing an evil, silent Yokozuna…
… to uncouth savage Islanders
Mark Catley’s Star Wars paste ups play on our nostalgia, but also remind us that the world is constantly changing around us…
And speaking of Star Wars, it can come in handy to explain the real world.
Catley’s poor girl seems a fitting contrast with this comment on a certain political figure.
While Covid-19 runs rampant, it isn’t clear if this is a critique of masks or a celebration of the team of 5 million mentality…
Bexie Lady’s female figures celebrate body positivity and empowerment…
While Cape of Storms’ retro paste ups play on our past and social norms.
The Slap City crew has been active recently, highlighting the impact of collective action.
An illustration by an unknown artist presents a stream of consciousness of disparate ideas.
Snail Gang and Yikes perfectly play off each other
Teeth Like Screwdrivers’ gnomes bring mythology and history to unexpected places, creating moments of connection
Good to see an old favourite back in the city…
Which led to revisiting some of TOGO’s legacy and the explorative quality…
SADER’s piece in Hereford Street pulls out a whole heap of tricks.
While SAER and BLER go high
Ikarus YSEK and Dcypher bring the golden goodness
The streets speak
And are filled with intriguing spaces that reveal the unseen.
Don’t forget to share your own pictures from the streets by tagging us in your social media posts with #watchthisspace or #streettreats…