Your Folt – Watch This Space

And that’s half of 2020 gone already. Although lets be honest, this year has seen a fair amount of activity, some shitty, but others important and long overdue. This month’s collection acknowledges these struggles, as well as looking to the past, the future and art as a gateway to explore and consider more than our immediate preoccupations. From Askew One’s haunting risograph print with MK Press and Fiksate, to our tribute to graffiti legend Jungle and the countless voices he inspired as a rebellious actor in the local urban landscape, here are our favourite things from the month of June…

Askew One x MK Press x Fiksate collab

Askew One signs his MK Press x Fiksate collab risograph prints. (Photo credit: Elliot O'Donnell) — Askew One signs his MK Press x Fiksate collab risograph prints. (Photo credit: Elliot O’Donnell)

The month started on a high with the release of Askew One’s limited edition print as part of the MK Press/Fiksate artist collab risograph print series. Following Dr Suits’ initial release, Askew’s striking red and black abstraction continued the popularity of the concept, selling out in just hours. The work embraces and explores the qualities of risograph printing, while continuing his digital studies drawn from urban environments. The result is a twisting, jagged image filled with a sense of terror and dread due to the blood-like tone. Setting a benchmark for the series, you wouldn’t really expect anything less from Aotearoa’s finest, would you?

Graffiti jam for the New Brighton Outdoor Art Festival

YSEK's rhino character from the New Brighton Outdoor Art Festival traditional graffiti wall. — YSEK’s rhino character from the New Brighton Outdoor Art Festival traditional graffiti wall.

The delayed and reconfigured NBOAF signed off with a traditional graffiti jam wall, with a number of local talents transforming a wall in the middle of New Brighton Mall. The green and magenta colour scheme tied the various pieces together, while individual styles and characters by YSEK and Dove ensured variety as well. The wall was intended to represent and celebrate traditional graffiti art, and as such was always going to draw criticism from some corners. The online discussion about the wall’s appearance was interesting to say the least, highlighting the ongoing and deeply held misconceptions and prejudices around graffiti, even when produced legally…

Jungle Tribute

When local graffiti legend Jungle passed away in March of 2019, Christchurch’s graffiti culture spoke by painting tributes across the city’s walls. I had discussed with Ikarus the idea of a larger written tribute that explored Jungle’s legacy, however, by the time we got to sit down with an eye on the one-year anniversary, lock down struck. In addition, what started as an interview with Ikarus, developed into a multi-generational project, stretching the process out. However, by June, the lengthy tribute was finally online. Hearing stories of Jungle’s influence, it was quickly apparent how consistent his impression was, a man who the city’s graffiti culture was indebted to, but also a character who influenced people by his charismatic personality…

Black Lives Matter Protest Posters

June's issue of Art Beat included an A4 risograph poster from the Posters for BLM archive. Pictured is Roydon Misseldine's poster. — June’s issue of Art Beat included an A4 risograph poster from the Posters for BLM archive. Pictured is Roydon Misseldine’s poster.

The latest issue of Art Beat, the visual arts newspaper edited by Dr Warren Feeney, featured an insert of A4 posters drawn from the shared archive Posters for BLM (@posters_for_blm). The three variations, by Stephen Powers, Sara Froese and local designer Roydon Misseldine, were risograph printed by MK Press and included inside the free paper. Importantly, the posters ensure visibility to the cause and serve as a reminder of the potential to raise a voice about oppressive systemic issues. While a small gesture, it attempts to continue this vital narrative. More posters are available for free download (for non-commercial use) from the archive, with a link in their Instagram bio.

Porta x FOLT Skull Collab

The FOLT x Porta skull collab in Cathedral Square.

The collection of FOLT skull cut-outs continues to grow around the city (although many have disappeared as well, seemingly too attractive to collectors), and this subtle variation by Porta is a personal favourite. Porta’s recent investigation of pixelated video game aesthetics is utilised here, but with an understated approach, the granite colouring giving a bare concrete appearance that only reveals the highlights, shadows and blocky shapes upon closer inspection.

And that was June 2020, for me at least, let us know what you enjoyed over the month in the comments…

While Watch This Space was founded on the concept of mapping out Ōtautahi’s street art, and our online map has been primarily populated with commissioned murals, we have always understood and celebrated the importance, urgency, poignancy, rebelliousness, hilarity and, basically, goodness of guerrilla graffiti and street art. In a time where urban art faces an identity crisis, the power of bypassing permission and making or installing art in the streets, from an elegant tag to a pasted pop-culture riff, is necessary and energising. As a reflection of this belief, welcome to Street Treats, a new recurring series that tries to capture the authentic spirit of urban art by collecting our favourite works of guerrilla art and presenting them to you.

The events around the world in recent weeks have rendered an environment of energy, of action and of hope for change, sentiments that graffiti and street art have also sought historically. Striking images of graffiti-covered walls and monuments have served as iconic backdrops of a time of social revolution, but also a reminder that writing on walls, artistically or not, is a way to attack the structures of our social contracts and the injustice they often protect. The images in Street Treats – Vol 1 are not exclusively political, but they do share the rebellious motivation of bypassing consent and altering the urban environment in which they have been placed. In each case, someone has chosen to bypass authority, to subvert and surprise, to add a voice to the street, as a secretive whisper or a defiant yell. Either way, it pays to listen…

While the US has been the epicentre for the BLM and anti-brutality protests erupting in the wake of constant tragedies of black lives lost at the hands of police (George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Rayshad Brooks and countless others), the social movement demanding change has spread across the globe, and weeks before the BLM hikoi on June 21, messages were spray painted around the city. In these cases, aesthetics were second to the urgency of the message…

All Power to th[e] People on Colombo Street. In some ways the misspelling further highlights the emotional undercurrent.

This small paste-up by Bols in Rawhiti Domain in New Brighton, featuring the surly profile of 1980s wrestler Bad News Brown, is a reminder of the widespread stereotypes of people of colour, something that continues to feed into the daily experience for many, either as the target of such perceptions, or those influenced by such presentations.

Bols’ Basketcase basketball singlet in North New Brighton delves into the nostalgia of popular culture. Drawing on the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club (The Brain, The Athlete, The Princess, The Criminal and The Basketcase as a starting five), it uses the retired jersey tradition to speak of growing up.

Blink and you might miss Porta’s well-dressed gentleman taking in his surroundings in New Brighton. Tucked away and displaying the retro stylings Porta does so well, it is playful and yet strangely poignant.

Dr Suits’ collage paste-up in New Brighton was one of many made by the artist during lock down. Expanding upon the smaller stickers produced at the same time, these large paste-ups become installations to take in from distance and close up, with striking effects and intricate details, including the layering effects of the collage approach.

The paste-ups are already beginning to influence the next evolution of Dr Suits’ studio work, this work becoming a print series, combining a digital image of the work with hand-filled elements.

Fellow Fiksate artist Jen_Heads’ love head continues a rich vein of expression the artist developed during lock down. This piece, spreading love to the neighbourhood of North New Brighton, was joined by a equally pink OLIVE tag.

This colourful Jen_Head evokes a kaleidoscopic pattern, with multiple eyes to see all. Located on New Regent Street, the paste-up is kept company by Jeremy Sauzier’s shadow figures and one of Teeth Like Screwdrivers’ ubiquitous pencils….

Speaking of which, Teeth Like Screwdrivers’ ‘fake buff’ pencil slap in the central city takes the recurring icon in anew direction.

Vez’s spoons are equally as recognisable, the collage pieces display an almost absurdist sense of humour with an inviting inclusivity, and are often collabs with other artists.

While Vez constructs new images from various media, the re-contextualised paste-ups by a secretive artist found across the city draw on the existing image from different sources in juxaposition with the surrounding environment to make their statement.

These Hot Lunch posters combine a lo-fi aesthetic and mysteriousness with a dirty joke, and its great.

FOLT’s angular skull cut-outs have populated the city in recent months, new incarnations popping up in unexpected locations.

The skulls include collaborations, like this one with Bols installed near the Christchurch Art Gallery.

FOLT’s slaps are proliferated even more widely, and here in Cathedrl Junction, the subtlety of placement shows FOLT’s slap game operating at boss level.

While not quite as subtle, this LOOK sticker pretty much speaks for the streets…

This DETOR slap in New Brighton also plays off our reading of signs.

This snake, (I suspect by Zig) has a free flowing feel, yet an undeniable certainty and confidence, while the line of Woe tags is a nice accompaniment.

SAER and SCUM left their mark in New Brighton during the lockdown, a reminder of the streets’ potential as a playground, and further evidence of SAER killing it everywhere.

PESTO and DEMP with the colourful/monotone contrast in the central city

I’ve enjoyed these SKEEZEY SKEEZER hands around the central city, a bit chaotic and yet so refined.

Tags are beautiful. EISOE, [unknown], WAYSER in the central city…

Lyttelton is always a go-to destination for slaps…

A few small Dotmasters stickers have appeared around Christchurch as well, echoing the larger stencil in Lyttelton, and flying the Anarchy flag.

This Meadow Death brandalism sticker reminds of one of the most effective potential of post-graffiti street art – attacking the heart of branding culture…

…Much like the potential of altering our surrounding environment through subversion and our almost inbuilt understanding of semiotics.

If you have some treasures to share, email them to hello@watchthisspace or message us via our social media (@watchthisspacechch) and we can include them in future Street Treats volumes…

And if your work is featured but not credited the way it should be, get in touch and let us know!

Tag: Your Folt

Street Treats – Vol. 1