Street Art

Lucky star

2011-10-01T20:19:00.000+13:00

Basement Bar. Auckland CBD.

What tha buff

2011-09-15T08:37:00.001+12:00

High St, central Auckland.

Little Fisher Boy

2011-09-04T22:19:00.000+12:00

I'm sorry that it is so hard to tell from these pics, but down by the water at the bottom of Soho Square in Ponsonby there is a little fisher boy, trying to catch a fish.

It has been beautifully executed and Soho is one of those places that I walk past daily but never pay any attention to. Well, I am glad I was paying attention the day I spotted this. I think it is fabulous.

Well done whoever is responsible.

Paw Prints

2011-08-19T08:10:00.000+12:00

High St, Auckland

Unity

2011-08-14T16:28:00.001+12:00

Eden Cres. Auckland Central.

Come Hither

2011-08-08T19:06:00.001+12:00

Skeleton. Behind Video Ezy, Ponsonby Rd, Auckland.

RHCP new album?

2011-08-05T12:51:00.000+12:00

Shorthand St. Auckland CBD.

Shattered Future

2011-08-03T19:53:00.001+12:00

Queen St, Auckland.

Rainbow Raindrops

2011-07-30T23:01:00.001+12:00

Behind St Kevins Arcade, K rd, Auckland.

No Smoking Stencil

2011-07-30T14:30:00.001+12:00

Apia, Samoa.

Band of brothers

2011-07-30T12:26:00.001+12:00

St Kevins Arcade. K rd. Auckland.

Fools

2011-07-12T07:56:00.000+12:00

Queen St, Auckland CBD

Cup Cake Walking

2011-07-10T21:57:00.000+12:00

Veg Wars

2011-07-06T20:35:00.001+12:00

The veggies are warring on Queen St.

DL in DL

2011-07-05T13:33:00.000+12:00

Double DL stickers on Fort St, Auckland CBD.

Bridge Jumper

2011-06-24T17:20:00.000+12:00

Kitty

2011-06-23T14:17:00.000+12:00

Caution: Man with Shoes

2011-06-20T07:31:00.001+12:00

Takapuna Fire Engine

2011-06-13T17:36:00.000+12:00

Frosty boy hold up

2011-06-12T12:10:00.001+12:00

Ai Wei Wei. Where are you?!

2011-04-19T20:00:00.002+12:00

Hilarious. I didn't know why people were changing their Facebook photos to this guy, and was more confused when I saw him on the side of a building on Princes St last weekend.

Read Wikipedia to find out why people are making a big deal about this dude.

Newmarket Man

2011-04-17T21:38:00.000+12:00

Hanging out behind the pool on the train tracks overbridge.

Just chilling.

Carrot

2011-04-12T21:37:00.001+12:00

Located on a lamppost at the top of Murdoch St.

Still looking for the rabbit...

K Road Treat

2011-02-16T22:20:00.003+13:00

I don't usually walk to work down K Rd, but the weather was a little threatening today, and K Rd is just slightly drier than my usual route.

There is this cafe called Roy's I think which has looked like it is set to open for about 3 weeks now. At any rate, it would seem that the boards over the window are a nice little canvas:

(I'm sorry I have been so slack of late. Auckland hasn't been giving me too much to post, but I will endeavour to hunt more down.)

Palmerston North Gems

2011-01-02T17:18:00.002+13:00

It's become something of a tradition for my mother and I to mission through to Palmerston North on Boxing Day for the sales. I bought amazing boots. That's kinda besides the point though.

This year, while in the bustling metropolis that is Palmerston, I found a few stensils:

It is a pity that this one has additional graffiti added to it. Thought the point was well made without the penis...

And I think this is my favourite one. Hidden well up out of the usual line of sight, proving that you are always rewarded when you take the time to really look around your surroundings and take them all in.

Go Palmy.

Banana Chicken

2010-12-21T20:47:00.001+13:00

He he he. How awesome is this banana chicken?

Sticker on a public toilet.

Initially impressed

2010-12-09T21:20:00.000+13:00

When I first saw this tag on the motorway whilst walking over Hopetoun Bridge, I was initially impressed. Takes guts to tag on a busy motorway. Especially Spaghetti Junction.

Turns out, not so impressive. It's an unused off ramp. Geez, grow some balls.

Meet Tom

2010-12-06T21:15:00.003+13:00

Personally I'm not that fond of butter, but each to their own.

Street Art to Express a Political View

2010-11-03T20:21:00.000+13:00

Lots has been happening recently and it is nice to see the artistic community reacting in kind.

This little beauty over the Hobbit issue is pretty freaking awesome:

Just chilling behind Ponsonby International Food Court.

And then I am assuming that this has something to do with the whole buying of the World Cup for Soccer? I'm afraid sport doesn't feature too high on my priority list of things to care about, but it is great that someone does.

A wall of paste ups in Grey Lynn.

Ask Google

2010-11-01T20:19:00.000+13:00

I think JC is onto something:

Halloween Street Art

2010-10-31T20:18:00.003+13:00

Ghouls on K Rd Seats.

Wellington - again

2010-10-26T20:35:00.007+13:00

Oh, as always. Wellington had some pretty beautiful gems waiting for me when I went down this weekend just been.

Farrah at Enjoy gallery

With a little PNTR action.
With a little more PNTR Supertoy action
And I think, a little more. Loving the sunnies - especially the ones below with collage lenses.

Hey! MTV! Pick Me! Oh, wait - you just closed your NZ office, maybe not.

Some pretty beautiful artwork on the side of the Mexican place at the back of Left Bank:

Little boy in an alleyway.

I love this though. Friday night the door looks like this.

Saturday night. Ta da! Sparkly!

I do love the constant changing landscape of Wellington. Non-stop. There is always someone doing something around town. LOVE it.

Stickers

2010-10-18T20:01:00.002+13:00

Been seeing a lot of stickers around the traps recently.

I like the fact that they're quick and easy to execute, but that also takes away from what I love about street art a little. The whole risk of getting caught is kinda the thrill of street art.

Nonetheless, here are some of the pieces I've walked by recently. All on Ponsonby Road:

Graffyard

2010-09-29T20:08:00.000+13:00

Once again combining 2 of my favourite things, street art and QR codes!

Berlin based artist Sweza is preserving graffiti with QR codes. Check out this video:

Or check out his website here.

I think it is an awesome idea, we lose so much amazing artwork thanks to graffiti clean up squads, I would love to implement this in NZ, that'd be awesome.

Auckland Walking

2010-09-23T19:50:00.000+12:00

Wandering Ponsonby Rd the other day I spotted this little lady:

This little cherub was in the same locale back in April, and they have a similar feel to them. Same artist perhaps?

Then, went to Racket Bar (there was a good reason - it wasn't really voluntary) and used Agents and Merchants bathrooms which had nice little stencils on the doors:

Sorry about the quality - cell phone camera.

To be honest - I didn't think that these really fit within the decor of the rest of the place, but whatever, their choice. Nice to see.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010-09-21T19:25:00.003+12:00

So, I went to see Exit Through the Gift Shop (finally) on Sunday and it really was everything I expected and more.

I spied this lovely little piece of guerilla advertising a few weeks back - advertising and stencil art, talk about mashing 2 of my favourite things together:

At any rate, I thought the movie was awesome. Directed by Banksy and about the almost overnight eruption of Mr Brainwash. There is a lot of speculation as to the truth behind this movie, but either way, it is worthwhile just checking out just to see all of the amazing work that they cover.

Warrior of Words

2010-09-09T20:33:00.001+12:00

This was odd and I didn't have time to read it properly.

They may be a warrior of words but they're not very courageous in their placement. It was well hidden down a back street - so much so I can't remember where it is...

Wellington Weekend

2010-09-08T20:22:00.002+12:00

Lovely few pieces I found during a flying visit to Wellington on the weekend.

Scissors on a blacked out wall at the top of the Dixon St steps

Edward Street
BEAR! Just around the corner from Watusi on Edward St
And this guy was just down the road from Maranui Surf Cafe
Love you Wellington. I'm sorry I didn't have longer to check out all the usual spots.

Looky here

2010-09-01T20:10:00.003+12:00

What a tasty treat to find on my way home today:

Amazing eyes pasted onto a building just off Ponsonby Road.

No claim or signature, no idea who did it, but I like it a lot.

High Class Blues

2010-08-01T18:07:00.002+12:00

Drove past something that I recognised yesterday but there was nowhere to stop...

Luckily, when I drove past another one, there was a stopping area. Yay.

Looks good. I am liking this line of work. Right up my alleyway.

Lost for Words

2010-07-17T16:08:00.004+12:00

This is the gem I was talking about.

Ah, the Soho Square - home to a great big hole. Well, last week I walked to work as usual, past Soho Square, on my way home however, there is was.

I am lost for words myself. This is some fantastic work. I've always been a bit of a type fan, but this is just beautiful.

Now, this was down by the time I walked to work the next day. I hope the artist came back and collected it and it wasn't stolen (more because I wish I had thought of missioning down in the middle of the night to pick it up myself).

Anyway, fantastic. This works gets a MASSIVE thumbs up from me.

Leave it to the uni students

2010-07-13T22:44:00.006+12:00

Now, I haven't spent much time wandering Auckland Uni just yet, I haven't had the need. A brief excursion the other day to see Eulogy at the Maidment Theatre on campus however lead me to this:

Power to the people. Speak your mind. I'd love an explanation as to why our Government is corrupt, I mean, it's not perfect, but I'd take our Government over some others around the world.

Like I said, I haven't trooped around Auckland Uni that much, but compared to Victoria Uni in Wellington, there was just nothing around.

In fact, there is very little around Auckland at all. Perhaps I am just not walking past the right playgrounds for the artistically inclined. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd be much obliged.

(In other news, I have a FANTASTIC shot of a little something just sitting on my camera. I will download it, just thought I'd tease it out first. It was up and gone within 24 hours, and it was pretty amazing work)

Leftovers

2010-06-25T20:34:00.001+12:00

Just a couple of leftover pics from the Wellington days. Foie gras was outside The Museum Hotel.

I don't recall where this little guy was. He seems happy though. Perhaps outside Enjoy gallery on Cuba?

Cheese Slicer

2010-06-20T20:29:00.004+12:00

I quite like this little paste up just at the bottom of The Metropolis. Unfortunately it has been taken down now, but I liked it while it was there.

HEY WELLINGTONIANS

2010-06-09T21:40:00.002+12:00

Hey Wellington kids and kidettes.

My favourite street artist PNTR is showing some work along with drypnz at Manky Chops from the 24th of June to the 10th of July.

Go along and support these 2 - they do some amazing work around Wellington which means you guys get proper interesting art on the street instead of the bullshit tagging which is all I can find up in Auckland.

Do it.

Also, check out both of their blogs/sites which has more work to see - pntr & drypnz.

By the way - thanks Tom for intended invitation, I am sorry that I won't be in Wellington over this time to check it out. Keep doing what you're doing.

Wanganui - June 2010 (Part Two)

2010-06-09T19:51:00.000+12:00

So, there is this little alley way to a parking lot behind the cinema in Wanagnui, which is where I found this little Enid Blyton image (with horns) lovingly placed below a 'God Bows To Math' poster (great band).

And this charming little paste up. NO idea what it is of, and is peeling off quite badly, but nonetheless. Nice nice.

There is also these Swallows all the way down the alleyway.

Wanganui - June 2010

2010-06-08T19:46:00.000+12:00

Went to Wanganui for the weekend to spend some time with the family. Photos of that, can be seen here but for street art, keep strolling.

This was on the side of a building just up the road from the Saturday markets.

And these 2 just a little further up the road on a building which, as a youngin, I used to go to underage gigs at. Brilliant venue.

And, I wrote a bit about this building back last year, the owner (I believe it to be Ross Mitchell-Anyon) has stated that he is happy for people to use the building as a canvas, but since then, there have been some more additions:
This one of Michael Laws cracks me up. There were a couple of Michael Laws stencils but the other was slightly more inappropriate than I am happy to post.

Broken Hearted Bathrooms

2010-05-26T21:45:00.003+12:00

He he. So this is stenciled onto the public toilets in the park at the K Rd end of Ponsonby Road. Its clever, but man alive did I get some strange looks taking this pic.

The Tron

2010-05-03T20:17:00.004+12:00

I thought that this was pretty impressive, found in Hamilton East, some of the writing is written on after the fact, but otherwise, this is a stencil, which I personally think it pretty impressive. It's not ultra beautiful or anything, but good gracious, what a lot of detail.

Ponsonby Ways

2010-04-25T15:08:00.004+12:00

So, strolling down Ponsonby last week, I found these 2:

Nice - obviously quite old, but good nonetheless, and I am glad they haven't been graff squad covered. Is Auckland a little slower off the mark than Wellington?

Whose neighbourhood am I in?

2010-04-18T19:00:00.000+12:00

So, I only walk past this every single day, but I noticed it last week. On a little garage before Hopetoun Bridge you have one sticker:

And a very regal young lady holding a paint can.

Have I stepped into Component's turf? This sticker on a lamppost, just down the road from the lady on the garage, would suggest it is possible.

I can see you...

2010-04-12T20:57:00.003+12:00

Right, so what I have discovered with Street Art in Auckland is that the artists are pretty sneaky and they tend to hide their work. I'm not sure if this is because there are greater consequences in Auckland, of if it is just that it is easier to get busted, but I will now be looking under every bridge, like this one:

There is a gnarly fence which means I can't get too much closer to this even if I try. I like it though, the angel is kinda looking down on all the poor commuters. Very nice.

2010-04-09T19:04:00.000+12:00

I love Wellington, and the cute little corners things pop up.

This guy has an entire iSite billboard to himself. Clever. You know advertisers pay $3k+ for that site.
Bicycle - for some reason I think this may be PNTR? it is also on this blog here.
And more Marilyn - this one is outside Manky Chops though, and no moko this time.

Gallery Promotion

2010-04-08T20:10:00.000+12:00

So, this was pretty cool and I saw them around town as well, but they were quite graffitied.

Sorry about the shitty sun glare - but this is the layout and then you can catch the close-ups further down.

Exhibition poster with a difference, as above. Interesting and different.

That place - near the church

2010-04-07T19:54:00.000+12:00

You know that place on Macdonald Crescent, near the church, well underneath there are a whole lot of stencils. Who knew?

Victoria University, Wellington

2010-03-29T19:21:00.006+13:00

So, right before I left Wellington I spent a bit of time in Karori and walking to and from work I rediscovered what a mecca Victoria University is for artists. Granted, some of these are on the way there, or a little past, but they are all pretty sweet times.

(Follow the wizard)

Love this one. The imagery is just beautiful.
And I find it curious that the graffiti squad painted over all the rest of the graff on this wall, but not the boy.
PNTR??

Love you Wellington. Miss you. Can you please make sure there is lots of new work around this weekend when I am down for Easter? Thanks.

New in Auckland-town

2010-03-21T20:37:00.004+13:00

Been in Auckland just over a week. Here are a few of the things that I have found thus far. Nice to see some familiar pieces and names around the traps.

I have seen this before and stolen one of Thomas Scovell's pics for a post which is here and then here:

bmp is a name that I have seen in Wellington a lot as well.

TEETH remind me of PNTR

The start of the Auckland work. I haven't seen that much around, but I am sure there is a lot to explore and find.

Love BANKSY

2010-02-24T14:03:00.002+13:00

Banksy is one of the reasons I love street art.

Found this via mUmBRELLA who were talking about the AU ads around it, but check this out:

Love Banksy - total smart, creative, thought-provoking work.

That is all.

Love Newtown

2010-02-09T20:43:00.002+13:00

Always the hub of creativity, these stencils guard the entrance of Newtown.

Newtown rules. Didn't you know?

In this weird little garage, there are some recognisable stencils, and some new ones.

This Vivisection message is one I have seen before, but previously, it was with a dog:

The wild horses I have seen before, but I seem to have not posted. I will hunt them out and do so.
I'm sad for the sad kitty

But I like the fact that someone wrote 'cheer up kitty' on the wall above it:

We are all, Free. Indeed.Anyway, you can find these here:

View Larger Map

Busy busy

2010-01-05T20:15:00.004+13:00

Well, looky who has been a busy artist whilst I was away. PNTR has been at it again and this first one is the most awesome pieces I have seen in ages. Well done!
This next one I find interesting - it gives me the impression that these are not created at home and pasted up, but put up and then created. Maybe maybe?? If so it certainly adds a degree of timing required. I can't imagine these are quick to create.

PNTR hunting + other sweet stencils

2009-12-14T22:33:00.002+13:00

I've been walking a little more than usual due to screwing my ankle a few weeks ago and the MASSIVE winds that we have been having. Biking into a head wind with a bung ankle just doesn't work!

It would seem the elusive PNTR has been around the traps again, gracing us with some more beautiful work. This deer is just off Marion St, on the way to the back entrance of... you know...
And back on Arthur Street the Graff squad has been in full force, cleaning up the buildings, providing fresh canvases.
A little further along the bypass I found this. I honestly don't get it. At all. Sorry. I am sure it makes sense to whomever created it, but I don't get it. Nicely executed though.

Melbourne - Part Two

2009-12-04T14:00:00.000+13:00

Stencils... in... space!

2009-11-29T20:19:00.003+13:00

Don't walk up the top end of Dixon Street much, so imagine my joy when I came across New Jazz Trans Plant:
And the butterfly spaceman:

Awesome.

On another note, went to Wanganui this weekend and as I was leading I spotted this:
Someone has REALLY gotten around with this one. I saw it at the start of the motorway in Wellington not that long ago and by the time I got to it, it had been removed. I really like it. It is smart stenciling.

Also like the fact that they have made 'mental' red. I think the one in Wellington was all black.

Love it.

Marilyn "moko" Monroe

2009-11-25T14:04:00.004+13:00

This is AWESOME. The lovely Emma from Red Wine & Cigarettes took this photo just up the road from her house and sent it to me today.

It's amazing, I just love it. Thanks Em! xx

Melbourne - Part One

2009-11-18T13:16:00.001+13:00

So, I can't take credit for these, they were taken by the lovely Emma who has a blog called Red Wine & Cigarettes but I am stealing them for this blog because they're totes impressive and very colourful. Thanks Emma!

Then...

MUGS (+a random selection)

2009-11-15T15:56:00.006+13:00

Right, not street art, but I like this, it spoke to me as I was walking home one night, possibly after partaking in 1 too many drinks, but, in the morning, I still like it, so that's a positive.The butterfly may have spoken to me as well. I feel like this is on Webb St, but again, after 1 too many, it could be anywhere between Cuba St & my house.
And then we come to the MUGS. Now, I am not such a fan of tagging, which essentially is what this is, however, I will hive them their dues, they find imaginative ways of tagging:

Like I said, don't 100% approve, but interesting use/collection of canvases.

And PNTR continues to follow me around, or more to the point, I seem to go where they have been. Not sure how old this is, I don't walk down Bond Street very often, however is caught my eye yesterday.

On my way to work

2009-11-05T21:43:00.005+13:00

I don't often walk to work, I usually ride my bicycle, however as the wind does have a tendency to blow a little strong sometimes in Wellington, this requires walking.

So, Wednesday I walked in and walked past a few gems.

On a letterbox on Arthur Street:

New images from the building that I took photos of the other week:
Looking a little closer at the PNTR tags:

Sheep.

These are on the Le Metropolitan cafe wall on Garrett St:

Elements of Banksy in this one:
No maps. Sorry. They are quite spread out.

Happy weekend.

Arthur Street - The Bypass

2009-10-29T20:49:00.005+13:00

Great building on the bypass. I drove past it a while ago and thought, I should go back there, but tonight, as I was walking home I noticed the back of the building. We'll start at the front:
Lovely little artistic additions to the front of the building.
I feel it is a bit of a shame that the ducks have been covered, they look like they were well designed, it is however a PNTR:

Around the side of the building there is this nice little paste up hiding in the bushes:
And in the parking lot we have this lovely face
A bit of skull action
And this little guy. Naughty boy, drawing on the wall!
Any chance this is who is responsible for the boy? I have seen PNTR around a bit recently. I have a shot of a deer head with the teeth here and it looked as though this is it is the same artist.
I have a funny feeling PNTR is going to be my new obsession. Lots of brilliant work tagged with PNTR around the place at the moment. Shall be hunting it down...

All of the above is on the building here:

View Larger Map

Vege markets - Vivian Street

2009-10-25T17:56:00.004+13:00

So, on my way to the markets today, I managed to get up close and personal with the -I'm gonna go with - crocheted hearts on the fence just up from Cuba Street. They are very cool, and I like the fact that someone took the time to put this together. Would have taken a decent amount of time and effort.
And then a little further up, there is this lovely little homage to meat. Now, I'm not sure if that is what the artist was going for, but it what I read into it. Very cool either way, I bet it gets pulled down by next weekend, quite a shame.

You can find these around here:

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Health Education/Military Force?

2009-10-20T16:03:00.000+13:00

I love the double up of what this building is.

Is it the Health Education Branch or is it New Zealand Military Force??

At any rate, these little gems are all on the building.

These are all on this building, here:

View Larger Map

Where there was once a grey wall

2009-10-15T13:40:00.000+13:00

So the graffiti squad have been out in force recently, and have taken to one of the better graffiti walls in Wellington which I have mentioned before here.

But, where there are grey walls gives artists a blank canvas for more work. Here are some of the pieces that I have noticed pop up in the last little while.

At the bottom of the wall there is this lovely little pasteup, nicely positioned:
In between two windows:
I like a lot.
These are all (currently) on the building here:

View Larger Map

I went to Hamilton

2009-10-12T11:20:00.003+13:00

And unfortunately didn't manage to do a big hunt for street art but walking down Victoria Street in the small hours of the morning, I found this place, which had the art on the inside of the store. I think that it was once upon a time a kebab/burger joint, but now has nothing inside it, just pretty walls.

Obviously very Banksy influenced, the kissing policemen were on the outside of the shop front twice.

Sorry the pics are a bit shit, taken at night on my phone. but you get the gist.

These are located here in Ham-sticks:

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Deer-hunter?

2009-10-08T07:51:00.003+13:00

Had to mission back to pick up a photo of this paste up this morning.

Now, I think that the deer has teeth around it? Random, but its pretty cool, I like it anyway.

Back at Wellington Trawling Sea Market:

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Ian Curtis weekend

2009-10-05T08:36:00.002+13:00

So I watched Control this weekend, but Anton Corbijn and it was amazing. Great movie about Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Just loved it.

Anyway, walking to work this morning, and what do you know, the Ian Curtis wall has a new stencil on it:

I like it. Have a feeling that it may succumb to the greyness of the graffiti squad, but at least I got a photo of it.

Late night/early morning Wellington Walking

2009-10-05T08:19:00.000+13:00

Was walking home late one night/early the next morning and came across a few little gems around the Webb St area. I especially like the 'mugs' tag on the door.

This one is up the Top of Taranaki/start of Wallace Street. I like it, think it's clever.

Locations:

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Slacker

2009-10-02T11:59:00.004+13:00

This poor blog has been a little neglected of late. I am sorry for that. I shall rectify the situation properly this weekend.

In the meantime, this is by no means what I would deem good street art, the reason I am putting it up is that I think it is really sad and to a certain extent, I don't really understand it.

There feels like there is a lot of anger in this.

Still up (as of this morning) here:

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Remember my name

2009-09-21T18:09:00.004+12:00

I'm gonna live forever, I'm gonna learn how to fly, high!

OK, so I am a bit of a sucker for the first version of this film, so I am interested to see what the remake is like. They're doing some pretty serious promotion both in cinema and ambient, and it has been done very nicely. I walked past this street stencil the other night:

and right up the road was the AdShel - not sure if that is Meg or Lucy's silhouette going on... sorry:Nice placement too, right outside Massey University:

View Larger Map

Permanent Ian Curtis comes back

2009-09-18T12:22:00.004+12:00

Ok, possibly the last post on this - sorry for the constant updates.

There have been some additions to the Ian Curtis memorial wall. For one, it looks like someone has included Michael Jackson

There is still the chalk one:
However this one has been done in paint:
I loved this:
sitting on the footpath next to the wall. Looks almost official.

We refuse your grey walls!

2009-09-17T10:54:00.002+12:00

And we refuse to allow you to take away our Ian Curtis Wall.

Pity it'll wash off in a decent downpour.

RIP Ian Curtis

2009-09-12T11:12:00.006+12:00

The graffiti squad are cracking down, and they are cracking down on 'graffiti' which has been around longer than I have been alive!

According to Stuff.co.nz the "Ian Curtis RIP" tag was painted on the Wallace Street wall in 1981 in memorial for the Joy Division singer. 28 years later, granted, it had become slightly defaced over the years, is now gone. This image was posted by Stuff:

Last night as I walked past the wall however, it was very much black out there:

It is a shame, and even Wikipedia has updated it's mention of the wall in the Ian Curtis wiki:

"A wall on Wallace Street in Wellington, New Zealand, had the words "Ian Curtis Lives" written on it shortly after the singer's death. The message is repainted whenever it is painted over, and another wall on the same street now bears the message "Ian Curtis R.I.P. Walk In Silence" along with the dates "1960 - 1981" (sic). Both are referred to as "The Ian Curtis Wall". However on Thursday 10th September 2009, the wall was painted over by Wellington City Councils anti graffiti team."

I notice too, that the stencils on Taranaki St where these stencils are have have a bit of a makeover. Goneskis. Interestingly the stencils which I have shown in this post are still there, it was the large stencils/graff art (one of

which were a bunch of skulls which I missed taking a photo of dammit!) that have been painted over, including this one (which I stole from @thomasscovell's twitpics - sorry Thomas):

Yeah, the wall is now very much grey. Suck.

More animal heads

2009-09-08T10:14:00.001+12:00

Bang Bang Eche have animal heads too! Looky:

Bang Bang Eche - (You + Me) As Thick As Thieves from Bang Bang Eche on Vimeo.

What am I talking about? I was going on about animal heads on people the other day in a post here, then I went to Crazy Horse for a drink and they have beautiful art work with animal heads and now even Bang Bang Eche are rocking them. Must be the new cool thing. Wonder where I can get one for myself...

Vivisection is Shit

2009-09-08T08:16:00.002+12:00

I quite agree.

This little cutie is sitting on the side of the road just up the way from my house. Hanging at the bus stop, making a point.

Here is a close up of the puppy:

And the little delight he left behind:

Once again, using street art to deliver a message. I love it.

Wanna see this for yourself? You can find it here:

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Small surprises

2009-08-28T14:31:00.004+12:00

Couple of small surprises that I have come across over the last 24hours.

This guy was outside the Watusi - not sure how happy they would be about it, but at least it has been relatively well drawn:

And then we have this guy. I think he is a sticker and not a paste up. There was another at the cuba end of Left Bank which ink had run, but this one, near Paper Bag Princess, was well intact.

Seeing animal heads on human bodies at the moment. Below is one of the visuals that is being used for Them Crooked Vultures.Its odd, but I like it, and I like the band too. Josh Homme & Dave Grohl. Dreamy!

Locations:

Image one:

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Image two:

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Ah, Children

2009-08-18T22:02:00.007+12:00

I love the innocence of children, drawing on a random wall, but in this case the child is drawn also.I'm a little gutted that I missed the 'Thug' on the corner of Salamanca and The Terrace, it was quite cool, but has been painted over now.
Location:

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When in... Cairo?

2009-08-14T08:00:00.000+12:00

So when in Cairo, you just have to understand that you are in 'the embrace of the history'. I understand that this is a sign, and not necessarily street art, but hot damn, I love it. I felt embraced by this history too. Of course this sign is actually in Cairo, rather somewhere along the Nile I think.
What I love about the street art I found in Egypt (to be honest, I only found stencil art in Cairo) is that it really is such an amazing mesh of traditional and pop culture. From a pharaoh head:
to a little Michael Jackson action:If you happen to get to Cairo, you can find these near the base of Cairo Tower:

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When in Roma

2009-08-13T03:04:00.000+12:00

So, September last year I did a little mission to Italy with my beautiful sister, and whilst there, discovered that Italians love the stencil art also. There are some quite militant/political ones :

And then some very intricate ones:

These are all somewhere in there:

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And then some gems from Naples:
(Not sure what all the monkey's are about)

Above and below both feel slightly Banksy-esque to me
Exact locations not noted, but Naploli is here:

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We're not told often enough

2009-08-10T19:58:00.000+12:00

I love this little gem. There is so much negativity in the world these days, people are always putting you down. This, is a lovely piece of art, it was sitting at the bus stop at the top of Taranaki Street. It's the kind of stencil which can so easily brighten anyone's day, especially when you are on your way to work. I took this photo a while ago, and I don't think it is there anymore, which is a shame. It was a lovely gesture, and I hope to see more of this sort of thing going on in Wellington.
Location:

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Update on 13th Head

2009-07-31T13:44:00.000+12:00

Ask and you shall receive an answer!

@starlajo very kindly pointed out that perhaps I could email 13th Head and ask them what it is all about. She's a smart cookie that one. I did, and Jim (who owns Phantom & 13th Head) responded with some info about these posters, and better yet, photos of the launch!

This is what Jim had to say about 13th head (I figure that he can say it more eloquently than I):

We are printing and placing poem posters in 13 centres thru' NZ for six months. We are also placing poem posters in Nashville, Tennessee and Sydney, Australia and Paris, France. Six poets will be featured each month. Our next round will be launched in Christchurch on Janet Frame's birthday at the end of August.

We had a launch last week at the Wellington Seafood market you mention. They kindly loaned their premises (walls) to us. This opening was officiated by Michele Leggott the outgoing Poet Laureate.

So there you go. Very cool idea, great poems, and more amazing street art for Wellington! Awesome.

Who is 13 Herd?

2009-07-29T10:54:00.001+12:00

Cycling into work this morning, some fresh paste-ups caught my eye on the Wallace/Taranaki St bus stop. Big A2 posters which I could only guess had poetry printed on them (I'm a pretty speedy cyclist).

Then cruising down Cuba I spotted more outside the Wellington Trawling Sea Market (which do great fish & chips FYI):

And all along the front of the shop:

Here is a close up of the paste-ups

So this confuses me quite a bit. Phantom have their name on the bottom right corner, however there is not one of these pasted up in the Phantom allocated areas. Curious. Also, do you think that Wellington Trawling are ok with this? Seems a little full on, and apart from in the bus shelter, I didn't see them anywhere else.

Anyone got any interesting information about 13 Herd??

Wellington City Council, what are you doing?

2009-07-29T09:11:00.000+12:00

So the anti-graffiti campaign for Wellington has been up and running for a while and to be honest my take on the whole campaign was “it’s butt ugly, but its WCC so at least it is not going to leave Wellington, and hopefully we won’t have to put up with it for too long”. That’s kinda where I left it. A number of people have noted just how darn ugly it is, but that was as far as it went. I thought…

Here is a visual of one of the AdShels:

Last night, talking to my lovely new flatmate who is the editor for the Capital Times, I found out just how bad this campaign is. The ‘graffiti’ that is responsible for this supposed outbreak, is actually some artwork which was COMMISSIONED. The very talented drypnz who has done a number of pieces around Wellington - including outside Rex Royale, one of my favs:gets paid for this work, because he is talented and people appreciate good street art.

The more I heard about this, and the more I have read about it this morning, the worse it gets. So it would seem that the photographer for this campaign just went out and took a photo of graffiti, they didn't realize that it was ‘legal’ street art. When the Capital Times hit the Council up about this, they said that they had spoken with Dryp and apologized. Dryp never had a phone call – and lets be fair, its not hard to find him – and so the council retracted their statement and said that someone (I’m wondering if that might be Wellington Wall Street) have voiced their concerns about using commissioned work to highlight ‘illegal’ graffiti and the Council apologized to them. Awesome guys.

So, let’s check this off:

1. Develop an ugly idea for a campaign
2. Take a photo of commissioned work to portray to the public as ‘illegal’
3. Force the Wellington public to see this awful creative
4. Claim to have apologized to the artist
5. Retract statement and say that they will stop producing the posters (I don’t believe they have said they will stop the whole campaign though

Good work. And who is responsible for this campaign? Is there an agency behind it? A misguided design studio? Worse still, was it done in-house? Some of the comments from Wellingtonista's blog about this campaign have been hilarious. This is my favourite though:

"I found the whole campaign creepy. All the people in the adverts were white, suburban and somehow infected by an 'otherness' from the presence of street art/vandalism."

Would love to know any other information if anyone knows anything.

Updated: Richard from WCC commented on this post on my other blog - and for the record, this is what he had to say:
We at the City Council just want to clarify that we didn't mean to use graffiti art on advertising for our anti-graffiti campaign. It was an honest mistake. We did not mean to cause offence and apologise to Drypnz and any other artist who's been offended.
As I told the Capital Times, we were unaware that it was legal graffiti art when we took the photos for the campaign and will not be using it on any future advertising for the campaign.
We at the City Council now feel suitably chastised for our lack of street-cred and general blundering absence of cool.
You're welcome to your views about whether the campaign is 'ugly' or not - but it was produced because a majority of Wellingtonians have a fairly low tolerance for illegal graffiti - especially tagging (and yes we think we now know the difference between tagging and street art). We don't intend to stop advertising our anti-graffiti kits - which have been flying off the shelves. Perhaps that's an indication that people in the real world have a problem with their neighbourhoods being vandalised.
Just to close, perhaps you should consider your favourite comment from Wellingtonista: "I found the whole campaign creepy. All the people in the adverts were white, suburban and somehow infected by an 'otherness' from the presence of street art/vandalism." At the risk of running up against your perceptions, and the perceptions of whoever made the comment, we're aware that at least one of the few people in the images doesn't consider themselves to be 'white' at all. And since when was it a crime to be 'suburban'?
Richard MacLean - Wellington City Council

At least they are paying attention to what is being said about them.

Wanganui

2009-07-27T17:03:00.001+12:00

So in Wanganui (where I spent the weekend) there is a building near the design school on the corner of Rutland St and Drew Avenue which I believe owned by a Mitchell-Anyon (not sure if it is Ross of Leigh?? Pretty sure they are both pretty artsy though) who has made it common knowledge that he is happy for this building to have stencils spraypainted onto it. From what I understand - what my mother and grandmother told me as they took me to check it out - the people of Wanganui are not quite as excited about this as I am. They believe that it is encouraging tagging, but looking around Wanganui, I didn't think it was that big a problem.

So whoever owns this place is into the art scene and can appreciate it, which is amazing, and means that artists who have put time and effort into creating a stencil can put it out there for the public to see without having to worry that they will get caught, or that it will be painted over.

As the stencil below says, Graffiti is Fun, not scary, especially if people are brave enough to embrace it. The following are just a selection of some of the stencils that were on this one building, there are many more, and I will continue to check when I go back to Wanganui.

If you'd like to check these out for yourself, the location is:

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Is it an issue?

2009-07-22T08:25:00.000+12:00

Are stencil's an issue? Really? I quite like Stencils. I like them much more than tagging. Stencils require care, thought, time and effort. Someone has taken it upon themselves to create something. It is not an issue, in my eyes, it is art.
Both of these are just down the road from me on Taranaki St. Location:

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The Pic of the Bunch

2009-07-21T14:40:00.000+12:00

This is my favourite all time stencil. It was on the building right across the road from work until it was demolished to make way for a horrid apartment building. It was like whoever did it, knew how much I love both stencils and Nirvana.

Location:

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