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Street art has played a major role in bringing life back to Christchurch post-Earthquakes. A major player has been Watch This Space. They are a charitable trust established almost 10 years ago that organises and maintains public art projects in Christchurch, updates their interactive map helping people explore the city, and runs tours. Dr Reuben Woods is the creative director of Watch this Space.
Graffiti on a damaged building on Colombo Street. The photographer comments, "This street art has been unseen by the general Christchurch population as it was off limits in the Red Zone".
Christchurch's Graffiti House... This Cranford Street house was damaged in the earthquakes and is due for demolished this week but has been given a Graffiti Makeover by local Street Artists.
A graffiti-style recruitment advertisement for the NZ Police, depicting police officer Spence Kingi pulling a woman from the rubble.
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A PDF copy of pages 114-115 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Aibohphobia'. Photo with permission: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. Photo: John Collie.
Detail of steel bracing supporting the Colombo Street overpass. The photographer comments, "After the earthquake in Christchurch the Colombo St overpass got damaged and they used reinforcing steel beams to hold it up".
A page banner advertising a feature titled, 'Street art: Christchurch's outdoor gallery'.
Images of Christchurch following the earthquake, showing the demolition of buildings, street art, art, community and cultural life.
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This thesis considers the presence and potential readings of graffiti and street art as part of the wider creative public landscape of Christchurch in the wake of the series of earthquakes that significantly disrupted the city physically and socially. While documenting a specific and unprecedented period of time in the city’s history, the prominence of graffiti and street art throughout the constantly changing landscape has also highlighted their popularity as increasingly entrenched additions to urban and suburban settings across the globe. In post-quake Christchurch, graffiti and street art have often displayed established tactics, techniques and styles while exploring and exposing the unique issues confronting this disrupted environment, illustrating both a transposable nature and the entwined relationship with the surrounding landscape evident in the conception of these art forms. The post-quake city has afforded graffiti and street art the opportunity to engage with a range of concepts: from the re-activation and re-population of the empty and abandoned spaces of the city, to commentaries on specific social and political issues, both angry and humorous, and notably the reconsideration of entrenched and evolving traditions, including the distinction between guerrilla and sanctioned work. The examples of graffiti and street art within this work range from the more immediate post-quake appearance of art in a group of affected suburbs, including the increasingly empty residential red-zone, to the use of the undefined spaces sweeping the central city, and even inside the Canterbury Museum, which housed the significant street art exhibition Rise in 2013-2014. These settings expose a number of themes, both distinctive and shared, that relate to both the post-disaster landscape and the concerns of graffiti and street art as art movements unavoidably entangled with public space.
A PDF copy of pages 250-251 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Cardencity'. Photos: Trent Hiles
A PDF copy of pages 110-111 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Here are the People and There is the Steeple'. Photo with permission: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. Photo: John Collie.
The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu on Montreal Street.
COCA Gallery and the Christchurch Art Gallery seen from Gloucester Street.
The front of the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu on Montreal Street.
A PDF copy of pages 74-75 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Nom Nom and Best Demo 2012'. Photo: Reuben Woods
A PDF copy of pages 104-105 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'SCAPE'. Image: Ash Keating, Gardensity, 2010/11, commissioned by SCAPE with generous support from Leighs Construction and Portabuild, installed outside Christchurch Art Gallery. Photo used with permission: SCAPE.
A PDF copy of pages 364-365 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Deconstruction'.
A view through a gap in the partially-demolished Crowne Plaza Hotel to the Forsyth Barr building.
Clean-up in the CBD of Christchurch is well under way after the 6.3 magnitude quake 22 Febraury 2011.
A PDF copy of pages 366-367 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Government Life Suspension'.
Street Art in Christchurch: a Felix the Cat-like cartoon spray painted on a wall.
New Zealand’s first skyscraper was built on the corner of Manchester and Hereford Streets between 1905 – 06 for the New Zealand Express Company. This state of the art seven storey buil…
A PDF copy of pages 76-77 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Bag-O-Love'. Photo: Reuben Woods
Graffiti of an angel clutching a bottle, accompanied by the text "Chritchurch (sic) living make a good man drink." The photographer comments, "Living in Christchurch during the earthquakes was hard on all of us. Some people got drunk to forget or blot out the aftershocks, whilst others dare not drink so that they would be in full control just in case another big earthquake/aftershock occurred. As of today 24 September 2011 there has been 8660 earthquakes/aftershocks in the Christchurch area".
View down Worcester Street, with Christchurch Art Gallery in the back, and next to it is Worcester Chambers, which housed the Languages International Christchurch.
Taken soon after the 6.3 magnatude quake hit Christchurch 22 February 2011. Done in HDR to capture some of the "feeling" of what I felt.