How street art is redefining Christchurch's identity

As the FLARE Ōtautahi Street Art Festival came to an end on Sunday, the city of Christchurch told a story that went beyond those that had been painted.

Christchurch was once known as "the most English city outside of England" but Watch This Space's creative director Dr Reuben Woods said a lot had changed in the 14 years since the magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck on 22 February 2011.

"The city is increasingly of multitude, and therefore, it takes multiple artworks to frame that idea of what Christchurch is, rather than one picturesque postcard of the cathedral or another landmark.

"I think now it's an elegant ballerina rising up. It's a cacophony of characters, words, and names across a wall. It's bold cultural discourses.

"All of these things come together to reflect a city that, I think, has undergone significant change over the last 10 years and has started to show real pride in that diversity."

From the Dance-O-Mat - a coin-operated dance floor - on Manchester Street, Woods told RNZ it was the earthquake that had provided Christchurch with that opportunity.

"Having grown up in Ōtautahi, I was super aware of the perception of the city as very English, very sort of colonial.

"The post-quake environment has provided us an opportunity to refocus that lens - to embrace the indigenous histories and narratives of our city - to also embrace the increasingly multicultural and diverse sort of citizenry as well."

Christchurch City Council's principal arts advisor Kiri Jarden (Ngāi Tahu, Rangitāne, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) had described Ōtautahi as "dynamic, evolving, and embracing of diversity - maybe in a way that wasn't quite felt or present pre-quake by everyone in the community."

Outside Toi Auaha, Jarden told RNZ Christchurch had become the street art capital of New Zealand.

Lonely Planet had also named Christchurch as a global street art capital - alongside New York, London, and Berlin - in 2017.

On the other side of Worcester Boulevard, Kahurangi Carter (Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui) has pinned a handmade tino rangatiratanga flag brooch onto her white shirt inside The Arts Centre.

"It's really important that we are working with mana whenua, tangata moana, and tangata tiriti to help build the fabric of our blossoming city."

Carter is the Green Party's arts, culture, and heritage spokesperson. She is a list MP based in Ōtautahi, and campaigned for the Christchurch Central electorate in 2023.

"Street art in Christchurch brings colour and magic to our streets as we rebuild our beautiful city.

"We can see this beautiful Christchurch emerging, steeped in the whakapapa of our tangata whenua, our tangata moana, and the history here.

"We are like the phoenix that has risen from the ashes."

FLARE was held from 27 February to 9 March and had featured Kairau Bradley (Ngāpuhi) - or Haser - as a headlining artist.

Bradley was born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).

"I'm really blessed - and privileged - to be able to introduce Māori into my work. It's a real honour.

"It's not something that I've kind of done in the past, but through the lens of graffiti, I've been able to push a lot of that tikanga through my work."

His large-scale mural on the Madras Street campus of Ara Institute of Canterbury is a reflection of that.

"From an outsider's point of view, it's kind of how I've seen Christchurch - Ōtautahi - rise up after some of the incidents that have happened here in recent years.

"It's just been beautiful to watch this city rise again, and hopefully, my work is a representation of that."

Jacob Root - or Distranged Design - had been commissioned to create a mural outside The Muse Christchurch Art Hotel.

Unlike Bradley, 25-year-old Root was born and raised in Ōtautahi. He's been making street art for almost a decade.

"What inspires me is probably the city of Christchurch itself," he said.

"Growing up after the earthquakes and seeing how much art kind of popped up from all of the destruction that happened here kind of got me into it and made me want to be a part of it."

Meanwhile, Jacob Ryan - or Jacob Yikes - had painted New Zealand's tallest mural: a 53-metre-high piece on the side of the Distinction Christchurch Hotel.

It took him about 300 litres of architectural paint, 350 cans of spray paint, and three and a half weeks to complete.

"The idea behind it is pretty open to interpretation.

"I kind of create works without any real massive concepts behind them. I tend to like letting the viewer come up with their own ideas about it."

"I guess I'm a self-taught mural artist to a certain degree. I grew up sort of doing graffiti at a younger age, and now I do this for a living.

"Right after the earthquakes, me and a few mates started just painting really derelict areas that were kind of crying out for a bit of attention, so it's really cool to sort of see it progress now and get a lot of international attention as well."

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