Jacob Yikes latest body of work, Even in Darkness, was unveiled at Fiksate Gallery on Friday, April 1st. The first solo show for the artist since 2018’s Bad Company (held at Fiksate’s former Gloucester Street premises), a reflection of the long road these paintings followed to realisation. A stunning collection of gestural, detailed, evocative and deeply resonant works, the crowd were enthralled by the incredibly honest, yet mysterious paintings. Drawn from the personal exploration of psychedelics to expand his consciousness and break his sense of ego, the paintings are an otherworldy experience…
All photos courtesy of Fiksate Gallery.
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The works of Even in Darkness await the crowds…
Even in Darkness runs until April 30th at Fiksate Gallery, 54 Hawdon Street, Sydenham
Opening June 4th, Elliot ‘Askew’ O’Donnell and Jasmine Gonzalez present their first collaborative show Continuum at Fiksate Gallery. Based on a series of Gonzalez’s photographs interwoven with O’Donnell’s painterly investigations of digital and analogue abstraction, the show is a reflective rumination on the travails of the last year, the couple based largely in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic and the broader civil unrest that also flared during 2020. Continuum reflects the philosophy adopted by the duo as coping mechanisms throughout those challenging times. Viewing history and the contemporary experience as part of a continuum, the artists have created a body of work that is both beautiful and unsettling, as well as highly collaborative – working with O’Donnell’s florist mother Meghan Humphries and Wellington-based dancer, poet and performance artist Jahra Wasasala. The sequence of large canvasses suggest the interconnection of experiences and the cyclical pattern of history, even as hopelessness and isolation abounds.
Continuum opens June 4th at Fiksate Gallery (54 Hawdon Street, Sydenham), and runs until July 3rd.
Shadow Town, an exhibition of the work of local artist Ghostcat, opened at Fiksate Gallery on Friday 9th April, marking the gallery’s first show at their new Sydenham premises. There was excitement surrounding the show, with print and radio interviews and a flow of social media posts drumming up interest in the artist’s miniature creations. Ghostcat’s first exhibition, as the opening date approached the artist confided that he really didn’t know what to expect, but in his endearingly enthusiastic style, he was keenly enjoying the journey.
Photo credit: Charlie Rose Creative
Ultimately he had nothing to worry about. That nervous period when doors open and nervous doubts that anyone will show up creep up never had the chance to ferment. Almost immediately the Hawdon Street gallery was buzzing with an excited audience. In the smaller gallery the works were spread across shelves on the walls and a network of plinths, making use of the available space to accommodate the impressive number of creations (Ghostcat produced more than 40 miniature builds for Shadow Town). The plinths and shelving created the effect of a gridded network of urban blocks for viewers to navigate and provided multiple vantage points. A large roller door opens the Fiksate space onto the street, further connecting the show to the pervasive influence of Christchurch’s urban environment, explicitly in the case of the miniature replica wall placed in full view of its real-world inspiration just outside. The miniature version re-imagined with a mural by Dr Suits in a suggestive ‘will-it-to-life’ strategy.
Photo credit: Charlie Rose Creative
Other references may not have been as physically close, but were no less recognisable. As people leaned in to inspect the intricate and loving details on Lyttelton icons the Volcano and Lava Bar (with a tribute to the late Bill Hammond inside), the façade of The Ministry nightclub (including flashing ‘M’ neon sign), the ‘Stairs to Nowhere’ from the Hereford Street carpark (each step painstakingly cracked), The Staveley Market (surely a highlight, the status of corner dairies in Aotearoa childhoods may not be as strong in 2021 but for those of a certain age, we all had a local dairy for $1 mixtures and single cigarettes) and the Berlin Wall segment painted by Jessie Rawcliffe, sparks of memory and recognition flickered. That attachment to the real and lived is central to the success of Ghostcat’s work, a necessary addition to the intricate details. People sharing stories and admissions was a constant chatter amongst the bustling crowd.
Photo credit: Charlie Rose Creative
Alongside the memories and associations of experience and place, Shadow Town also revels in healthy doses of humour and collaboration. Watching people scan the dirty toilet stall, replete with over-flowing bowl and obscenely graffiti-ed door, or the bags of rubbish filling the Selwyn Street skip, it was clear that art can be both resonant and charmingly low-brow. The row of miniature objects (cans of Double Brown, discarded coffee cups, stick mags) centered on square canvasses along the entrance wall served to lampoon the expectations of the white cube and set the tone for the show’s gritty and playful focus.
Photo credit: Charlie Rose Creative
The collaborative element was clear as well. The doors and windows hung on the rear wall, the small utility boxes, window frames, walls and replicas of the giant spray cans on Lichfield Street all displayed the artist’s willingness to share the process of creation – Ghostcat’s builds adorned with downsized tags, pieces, throw-ups, stencils, stickers and paste-ups by local artists including Ikarus, Tepid, Dr Suits, Morepork, Teeth Like Screwdrivers, Jessie Rawcliffe, Rubble City, Dcypher and more. Reinforcing Ghostcat’s belief in community, these authentic embellishments, along with the artist’s insistence on hand-crafting, imbue the pieces with a distinct status as unique creations.
Photo credit: Charlie Rose Creative
Despite the obvious challenge of where to put a scale model of a toilet in your house, the pervasive red dots throughout the exhibition were evidence that this labour of love by a talented local artist struck a chord with a diverse audience. Shadow Town presents a new element in the city’s urban art scene, drawing on the power of urban spaces and harnessing the familiar (of both architecture and art), Ghostcat’s work is worth your attention and inspection. While the enthusiastic crowd undeniably added to the atmosphere and therefore the work on opening night, the contrast of the quiet, clean gallery space with the broken, dirty landscapes adds a certain charm as well and ensures you can truly immerse yourself wandering the streets of Shadow Town.
Shadow Town is on until May 8, 2021 at Fiksate, 54 Hawdon Street, Sydenham.
Ghostcat’s first ever solo show Shadow Town opens at Fiksate’s Sydenham gallery space on Friday, April 9th. While we figured March would have been a busy month for him, we thought it was worth checking in to see what kept him going throughout this hectic period as he prepared for the exhibition. Ghostcat’s exquisite scratch-built miniatures are intertwined with our surrounding spaces, inspired by our personal and communal experiences, so sharing a list of what he has doing seemed a fitting exercise. Knowing Ghostcat’s love for the quirky and grimy things of life, we were also aware it would likely be an eclectic list, surely infused with his love of schlock horror movies, quirky discoveries and of course, as a man after my own heart, pizza… We weren’t disappointed. So, here are the five things that helped Ghostcat along the road to Shadow Town and made his March more colourful…
Alligator the Movie:
I love eighties horror movies and this month I saw Alligator for the first time, its about a baby alligator that gets thrown down the sewer and feeds on dead dogs and rats that have been biffed down there by a lab. It grows about 60 feet long and fucks everyone up in town, it was incredible! I love how everything is handmade in that era of movies, from the posters to the effects…
Alligator the Pizza:
Image from https://alligator.pizza/
This is pure coincidence, but I also had Alligator Pizza for the first time from Riccarton this month. Pizza is life for me, I love it. Sal’s is normally my go to, but Alligator’s pizza’s are massive, like truly they are ginormous man! I had a whole cheese pie, it was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen!
Radiohead – How to Disappear Completely:
I started listening to Radiohead’s Kid A again this month and I had forgotten how beautiful the track How to Disappear Completely was… It is Thom Yorke’s favourite, I think. It reminded me of how we all feel at some point in our lives. Shit, that sounded really depressing, haha. But music takes you places though, eh? It evokes all sorts of wondrous things. Its an incredible song.
Edward Gorey – The Gashly Crumb Tinnies:
I had a conversation with Bongo the other day and he showed me some art from someone that jogged my memory of an artist I love so much, Edward Gorey. I have been meaning to get his book The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Its such a sinister and macabre illustrated book showing the running alphabet alongside the strange deaths of children, like, “E is for Ernest who choked on a peach.” Its delightfully twisted. Check it out, it is a stellar coffee table book. I love the scratchy heavy dark use of colour and the depiction of death is wonderful. Death should always wear a top hat and carry an umbrella. It doesn’t take itself too seriously but by nature it is pretty twisted. It’s fascinating, I recommend checking it out.
Preparing for Shadow Town:
Collectively working and collaborating with Bols, Teeth Like Screwdrivers, Ikarus, Vez, Tepid, Dr Suits, Bongo, Rubble City and Dcypher has been such an all encompassing experience, from seeing a vast range of styles of art to all having the same goal, which is to be part of anything that represents who you are as an artist. It’s been amazing and I am truly honoured to have had so many interesting and talented people get on board with what I’ve been doing. I’m really excited about this show, it can’t come soon enough!
Shadow Town opens 5pm, Friday April 9th at Fiksate, 54 Hawdon Street, Sydenham
Jessie Rawcliffe seems like the perfect fit for this month’s And That Was…, having just completed a stunning piece on one side of the Berlin Wall installation at the start of the month. Of course, typically laid back, Jessie is also not the type to wax lyrical about her own work, so don’t expect any mention of her own work (although you can check it out here). Instead, her February recap is filled with her favourite things, from British electro post punk albums, to photographic exhibitions, and as she promised me, the ‘goodest boy’ she could muster. So here is Jessie Rawcliffe’s February 2021 recap…
Shit. Reuben asked me to do this at the beginning of February – now that the month is over I can’t seem to remember a single thing that I did, but I know it flew past in a blur of hectic energy.
I’m terrible at picking my favourite anything (afraid of commitment much?), but here we go…
Album pick – Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
Categorised as ‘electro post punk’, I found these guys through Idles and Fontaines D.C. on YouTube. They’re a two piece featuring sparse beats, vocalist Jason Williamson talk-raps about middle class struggles and British culture with an abrasive English accent that I can’t get enough of.
Mork n Mindy is an absolute banger.
Opening / Monthly social gathering highlight – Fiksate’s new digs
Image supplied by Fiksate Gallery
It has to be Fiksate opening their new spot in Sydenham. Hawdon Street is in a great part of town, I’m about it.
Best good boy
This is Honey. We met at the beginning of the month, none surpassed. 11/10. Would pat again.
This guy’s been on fire this last month. His collage-style paintings have a cut and paste effect, mixing broad loose brush strokes with smaller detailed imagery that he always manages to balance. Objects are superimposed and float in space, you can read each thing or just enjoy the overall effect.
Also, dude has a cute dog, which is ultimately the content we all want.
Good Times Don’t Last, 2021. Image from Smolik’s Instagram @thatlosersmolik
Favourite exhibition – Larence Shustak: air gun? at Te Puna o Waiwhetu
The only thing I remember going to is the Larence Shustak: air gun?photography exhibition at CAG. It’s worth seeing.
He has a really interesting career going from New York where he took some of the most universally recognisable images of jazz legends, to Christchurch, where he photographed punks, and working with Flying Nun.
While we were there a gallery tour was on; the person taking it pointed out their all time favourite Shustak photograph, which is part landscape part portrait and probably the most quintessential ‘kiwi’ image on show; and I thought “fuck, really? That one!?”
Urban art, and graffiti in particular, are viewed by many as masculine realms, physical, aggressive and competitive. But, the reality is that women have long had a vital role in the history of wall writing and street art, from subway graffiti writers like Lady Pink, to post-graffiti icons like Swoon, and leading members of the contemporary mural movement like Maya Hayuk. In Aotearoa, the female presence in urban art has also been notable, and Fiksate’s Perspective exhibition, opening on November 6th, brings together an array of artists to share their diverse experiences and reveal the myriad stories and pathways of women in urban art.
Organised by Fiksate owner Jenna Lynn Ingram (Jen_Heads), Perspective brings together established and emerging female artists from around New Zealand (and further afield), with a diverse range of practices, from typography-focussed graffiti writers to spoon-loving street artists, collagists, paste-up artists, photographers, videographers, traditional painters and mural artists. This diversity reveals the approach of Perspective, less concerned with an explicit historical narrative or thematic or stylistic similarities, the show primarily explores the scope of work of the collected artists, from Flox’s beautiful stencils to Kophie Su’a-Hulsbosch’s empowered portraits or Befaaany’s striking urban photography. In doing so, notions of the female urban artist are both celebrated and challenged.
Auckland artist Flox is one of the impressive line up included in Fiskate’s Perspective: Women in Urban Art Exhibition.
Local talent Kophie Su’a-Hulsbosch is part of the Christchurch contingent of the show.
Accompanying the exhibition will be a limited-edition risograph zine, produced by Jane Maloney of M/K Press, providing additional insights into each artist’s background and further highlighting their varied experiences, from the challenges they have faced to the different environments that have fostered their approaches and nurtured their talent. While more fluid and non-binary gender identities may render gender specific exhibitions less necessary in the future, Perspective is an important moment in Aotearoa urban art, a celebration of some amazing talent.
Spoon-making street artist Vez highlights the diversity of the Perspective line up.
Perspective opens 5:00pm, Friday November 6th at Fiksate Studio and Gallery, 165 Gloucester Street.
For the September recap we reached out to our pal Teeth Like Screwdrivers, sticker aficionado, purveyor of pencils and host of Slap City, a fortnightly creative collab session held at Fiksate Studio and Gallery. As a figure who has brought people together to share, make and collaborate on creative projects, it was no surprise his highlights from last month reflected the communal, from photographic projects to conscious exhibitions and, of course, the Slap City events on the road to Ōtautahi Zinefest. Take it away Teeth Like Screwdrivers…
Is it the new normal now to talk about how weird each passing month is? It is? Ok, I’ll continue, with our normal. Welcome to September 2020.
September seemed to ramp up with ‘happenings’ in Ōtautahi. Maybe it was watching what was going on up north and knowing how lucky we are down here, maybe the feeling that summer is just around the corner, but there certainly seems to be a buzz around the city and the stuff I’m interested in…
Slap City on the Road to ZineFest
The Road to Zinefest event at Fiksate Gallery brought together Slap City, Otautahi Zinefest, Ride on Super Sound, M/K Press and the Physics Room… (Photo courtesy of Otautahi Zinefest)
A regular event for me has been hosting (I turn up!) a fortnightly sticker and paste-up workshop at Fiksate Gallery. For the month of September the workshops took on a new, busier, more awesome direction when we were joined by Ōtautahi Zinefest, Ride on Super Sound, M.K Press and The Physics Room. Suitably called ‘Road to Zine Fest’ the evenings saw people trying their hand at zines, Riso printing, sticker collabs and the ever popular badge-maker. Then of course there was Zinefest itself on the 26th, which was a huge success and really great to see it happening at Tūranga smack in the middle of the city.
Green Lane Market
(Photo supplied by Teeth Like Screwdrivers)
Markets of all sorts seem to be kicking off across the city, especially markets based around sustainability, recycling and re-purposing. Green Lane has been host to some great events in the past couple of months (King of the Forest was insane) but every Saturday it opens its doors as a market. The last few weekends have been really busy and it is great to see spaces like Green Lane pop up and cater to something other than the mall shops and international brands.
Down Below Print Co.
The limited edition Down Below Print Co. X Agroe collab t-shirt. (Photo from Down Below Print Co.)
Living in Lyttelton I am pretty biased towards anything portside. Down Below Print Co. is a Lyttleton-based screen printer with strong ties to the Dunedin scene. Every month they are releasing a collab t-shirt with a different graf artist for a limited time and run. For the month of September it is Agroe, and it is a good one!
Slapped City…
Central city paste ups by Cape of Storms, Vez and Your Alright You Are.
Maybe it is that whole post lock down thing and a need to get out and about but the city seems to have been overrun with stickers and increasingly paste-ups. It has been great to see Christchurch is catching up with Dunedin with heaps of international artists getting pasted up. My particular favourites have been seeing YAYA, Vez’s spoons and more recently Cape of Storm’s tongue-in-cheek art works popping up across the city.
SDG Art Exhibition at the Milton Street Substation
Jessie Rawcliffe’s Ophelia from the SDG Art Exhibition at the Milton Street Substation.
Having been involved in the very first Conscious Club event I am always stoked to see what they get up to. Not only have they recently opened their headquarters in the Boxed Quarter but the last few days of the month saw the opening of SDG Art Exhibition at the Milton St. Substation. The exhibition showcased the work of 17 different artists, each work representing one of the 17 United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. Highlights of the show for me were the works by Jessie Rawcliffe and Lisa Ovington.
Justyn Rebecca’s Together: Apart: Lyttelton
(Photo from Together: Apart: Lyttelton website)
Right at the end of the month there was a rad show at Te Ana Marina in Lyttelton. Together: Apart: Lyttelton is a huge installation of photos taken by Justyn Rebecca of people from Lyttelton during our Lockdown. All the photos were taken through windows, for social distancing reasons, and had to be within walking distance of Justyn’s house. Marlon [Williams] played some songs, people hung out on the grass with picnics and there were kids running about, skating and on scooters.
Welcome back to normal, Christchurch.
Follow Teeth Like Screwdrivers on Insta, and become part of the Slap City family on alternating Wednesdays at Fiksate Studio and Gallery…
February flew by, right? I mean, it literally seemed like I blinked and it was over. But if there is anyone who can fit a lot into what seems like a little, it is Fiksate’s Jen Heads. The artist, MC, gallerist, and mother is always juggling a range of projects. So it was natural for her to compile And That Was… for February, after all, she has hosted international artists, been the creative force behind a cool festival presence, and taken in some sights and sounds. In no particular order, here are the things that made Jen’s February…
The honor of hosting international artists Robert Seikon and Anastasia Papaleonida at Fiksate was a highlight of January and February. Alongside watching them produce such high-caliber art, hanging out and getting to know them was awesome. We introduced them to faces and places around Christchurch, including our local beach, to which Robert responded: “super beach, very nice, very nice” (His accent was pretty epic!). They were the best people. <3
Seikon and Anastasia (R) enjoy the beach with Jen (behind the camera), Dr Suits and their son Frank.
As part of their residency, I was able to facilitate a large-scale mural for Robert and Anastasia on private property for a pretty well-known local company. You can see the mural from the street if you are down Lismore Street (just respect their private property). It’s an amazing mural and using such bright colours pushed them out of their comfort zone. I feel Christchurch really lacks abstract murals, so this is an important addition to our city’s collection. I loved watching their process from start to finish. They work together so well, they are incredibly precise and fast. Inspiring.
Anastasia and Seikon in front of their massive mural with some of the Cosmic crew and Jen.
RDU 98.5fm had stages in three festivals this summer – Beer Fest, Nostalgia and Electric Ave. I was asked to realise the design concept for their crew and stages, based around the star of the show, Ziggy Starlet – a 1987 Starlet with a full sound system and DJ booth installation, it had a retro race vibe. In a pretty massive task I produced signage, banners and props for them. I am pretty stoked on the results!
The RDU installations at various festivals over the summer.
On a smaller scale, I found an aged Jen Head in New Brighton. It was like looking into the future…
A faded and deteriorating Jen Head in New Brighton.
As an MC, getting to meet and watch an idol of mine, Stamina MC, was a huge highlight! He performed live at the Sun & Bass BBQ gig at FLUX, Christchurch’s newest bar and venue, along with DJs Asides, Tbone and Patlife.
FLUX logo via Flux Facebook (@FLUX)
The first month of 2020 has raced by, but not without a heap of activity. The month started with an ominous red sun hovering above us with an almost artificial energy, and ended with some lovely summer weather. In between, there were BBQs, drinks, returns to the real world, and a flurry of activity within the world of urban art. From some overseas visitors, to established powerhouses and rising profiles, there was plenty to reflect on…
Long Trip of the Kokos
On the final day of January, the culmination of Robert Seikon and Anastasia Papaleonida’s residency at Fiksate was unveiled with the exhibition Long Trip of the Kokos. The collaborative works capture both a cohesive harmony, with subtle gradients and tiny details, while also proudly displaying each artists’ signature style: Papaleonida’s microbiological dots, squirming and humming, and Seikon’s crisp diagonal lines and spiky geometric shapes, providing optical illusions and paths of surveillance. From the clustered canvasses to the wall painting directly encountered when you enter the gallery, the show is filled with intriguing touches and impressive effects, washing over you without overwhelming. Long Trip of the Kokos is open until February 29th, 2020
Hip Hop Evolution – Season 4
I have a soft spot for Canadian rapper Shad, see his Pharcyde-inspired video for Rose Garden, and his likeable, intelligent, yet reverential nature has made him a perfect host for the Netflix series Hip Hop Evolution. As a fan of the culture’s history, he is never an overbearing presence, allowing the subjects to tell their stories. Hip Hop Evolution’s fourth season dropped in January and it quickly continued to dive into the various scenes and threads, including the rise of Bounce in New Orleans, and the emergence of super producers, which led me to nostalgically revisit N.E.R.D’s Lapdancefrom 2001…
Aaron P.K. in the Boxed Quarter
I was able to work with the BOXed Quarter and Aaron P.K. to install two large scale photographs, finally completed in late January. P.K. might be known for other street interventions, but his photography has always been eye-catching, capturing a slice of life in various settings, including those peripheral spaces that make the viewer aware of their isolation. The two images at the Boxed Quarter are distillations of urban exploration and graffiti culture, rooftop shots where the distant city glows, but the surrounding industrial fixtures remind of the precarious yet claustrophobic position of the photographer.
Seikon on Manchester Street
Alongside the exhibition with Anastasia Papaleonida, Polish artist Robert Seikon also produced a subtle, obscured wall painting, one that rewards more inquisitive viewers. Tucked away on Manchester Street, the square image uses Seikon’s signature barbed shapes to create an abstract composition that seemingly draws on the history of graffiti’s transformation of letter forms. The subtlety of the colours also seems perfectly harmonious against the blocks of buffed grey surrounding the painting.
Yikes and Dcypher pay tribute to Terence McKenna
With a spruce up of the Tuam Street carpark that has become an open-air gallery, Yikes and Dcypher added a tribute to American ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, whose advocacy for naturally occurring psychedelics is evident in the mushrooms and molecular structures that populate the image. The image combines many of Yikes’ signatures, while Dcypher’s mastery of the spray can is also evident in the portrait, a reminder that these two are right at the top of their game…
After the success and popularity of Jacob Yikes’ exhibition Bad Company, Fiksate are set to launch their next show, with the return of Face Value. Initially held at Fiksate’s previous location in New Brighton in late 2017, Face Value was an exploration of portraiture through urban art, design and illustration.
The 2019 incarnation of Face Value continues this theme, but with a more specific focus on the presence of faces, figures and characters in the work of graffiti, street and urban contemporary artists. This takes the identity-centric and infographic qualities of urban art (think of the centrality of the name in graffiti, and the instant recognition sought by post-graffiti artists) as a starting point, to consider the varying ways artists utilise portraiture, self-portraiture, characters, figures and faces, at times within their work. This spans somewhat traditional approaches to portraiture, to repeated, iconic emblems that are as much about their material or performative creation as their visual appearance, akin to a tag as much as a representational image.
The stacked line-up provides an array of artists whose work engages with this realm and highlights a variety of stylistic, material and conceptual approaches, from internationally renowned Anthony Lister’s frenetically composed images that shift between high and low cultural references, to Elliot O’Donnell (you may know him as AskewOne, either way he is undeniably one of New Zealand’s most successful and thoughtful urban artists) and his portraits that consider cultural identity. There are also works by Australian artists Handbrake (Perth), Tom Gerrard (Melbourne), and Mulga (Sydney), who all bring a playful, graphic quality to their character-based work, and UK and US artists KoeOne and Voxx Romana respectively, the former elegantly combining greyscale figuration with bold typography, and the latter, subversive cultural references with a stencil precision. Auckland artists Erika Pearce and Component bring further diversity though their distinct approaches to cultural identity, while local artists, both emerging and established, ensure a vital representation of what is happening right here. Local artists include Jacob Yikes, Ikarus, Joel Hart, Porta, Dove, Tom Kerr and Meep, each representing distinct personal perspectives; from bold self-portraits, to recurring motifs and characters developed over years of extended practice.
Face Value opens on Friday, January 18th, 5:00pm – 9:30pm at Fiksate Studio & Gallery, 165 Gloucester Street.
Check out Fiksate’s social media for more information…
