A bit of the now demolished QEII (Queen Elizabeth II) Park running track in the "Gap Filler" on the old Deka site in New Brighton (last occupied by a charity barn before a major fire and subsequent demolition).
A photograph of an installation on the corner of Manchester Street and Gloucester Street. The installation is titled "60 Lights Market", and is part of the LUXCITY event.
A PDF copy of pages 208-209 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Street Football'. Photos: Eugenio Boidi
A photograph of volunteers standing in the centre of a labyrinth they have created on the former site of St Luke's church.
A PDF copy of pages 368-369 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Transitional City Audio Tour (The People's Perspective)'. Photos: Ryan Reynolds
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An artist's impression of an installation that forms part of the '60 Lights Market' at the LUXCITY event. Coordinators: Daniele Abreu e Lima and Sam Stringlen; students: Chi Tran, Aria Jansen, Naomi Snelling, Rebecca Wyborn
An artist's impression of an installation that forms part of the '60 Lights Market' at the LUXCITY event. Coordinators: Daniele Abreu e Lima and Michael Smith; students: Alex Heperi, Gagan Saini, Shamal Nanji, Xavier Apelinga
A photograph of bricks forming a playing square of Christchurch: A Board Game. The bricks show a picture of ChristChurch Cathedral, and read, "ChristChurch Cathedral. Skip church, move to Ferry Rd".
A photograph of the wall of a street football arena built by Student Volunteer Army volunteers. The wall has a sign attached acknowledging the support of Resene, and is painted with the words, 'Red zone timber'.
A PDF copy of pages 302-303 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Outdoor Music Room'. Photos with permission from Greening the Rubble
A PDF copy of pages 322-323 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'The Hope Bear and Giraffing Around'.
A PDF copy of pages 36-37 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Ko Taku Kupu, Ko Tau/My Word is Yours'. Page 36 photograph of writers at CPIT: Tate Tiata. Remaining photographs: Earl Tutty.
A photograph of installations being constructed on the corner of Gloucester Street and Colombo Street for the LUXCITY event. In the foreground is the installation titled "In Your Face", and to the right is the installation titled "Etch-a-Sketch".
A PDF copy of pages 216-217 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Foamapalooza'. Photos: Peter Walker, Three Chairs Photography. With permission from Volunteer Army Foundation.
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 27 April 2011 showing the demolition of the premises of Ground Delicatessen on the corner of Canterbury and London Streets. The photograph is taken from Canterbury Street. The site formerly occupied by Ground Delicatessen was made available for a Gap Filler initiative called the Lyttelton Petanqu...
A PDF copy of pages 212-213 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project '500 Days: Churchill Park'. Photos: Peter Walker, Three Chairs Photography. With permission from Volunteer Army Foundation.
A photograph of crowds at the LUXCITY event. The photograph shows installations on the corner of Gloucester Street and Colombo Street. In the foreground is the installation titled "In Your Face", and to the right is the installation titled "Etch-a-Sketch".
A PDF copy of pages 350-351 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Concrete Propositions'. Images: Ash Keating Concrete Propositions 2012. Acrylic house paint on concrete. Copyright the artist. Courtesy the artist and Fehily Contemporary, Melbourne Australia. Photo: John Collie.
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 19 November 2011 showing the site of the Albion Hotel/ Ground Delicatessen. After the demolition of the building the site was used for a Gap Filler initiative called the Lyttelton Petanque Club. The photograph shows the temporary furniture, landscaping and public Petanque court. The site formerl...
A PDF copy of pages 214-215 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Christchurch: A Board Game'. Photo (top): Peter Walker, Three Chairs Photography. With permission from Volunteer Army Foundation. Photo (bottom): Irene Boles.
The book launch for "The Shaken Heart Booklet", a collection of interviews with members of the Lyttelton Community put together by Sue-Ellen Sandilands (left), Bettina Evans (middle) and Jen Kenix (right). The event was held at the Lyttelton Pentanque Club, a Gap Filler project on the site of the Ground Culinary Centre on London Street. In the background, members of the public are also making wool medals to celebrate the achievements of the community after the earthquake.
A PDF copy of pages 50-51 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'LUXCITY'. Photographs: Bridget Anderson and Douglas Horrell
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 19 November 2011 showing buildings on London Street. Visible in the photograph (left to right) are Bells Pharmacy - relocated into a converted house with law firm MacTodd on the upper floor, Portico (gift shop), Tommy Changs Cafe, and the edge of the Lyttelton Petanque Club Gap Filler initiative. ...
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 19 November 2011 showing a temporary artwork on the site of the Albion Hotel/ Ground Delicatessen. After the demolition of the building the site was used for a Gap Filler initiative called the Lyttelton Petanque Club. The photograph shows a temporary artwork created from used bricks, probably from...
One portrait colour digital photograph taken on 23 July 2011 showing the artwork by Trent Hiles erected on the site of the Harbourlight Theatre on London Street. The artwork presents part of James K Baxter's poem 'High Country Weather' using the international code of signal flags. The artwork was installed as a Gap Filler project. The artwork r...
A PDF copy of pages 206-207 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'Fulton Hogan BMX Pump Track'. Page 206 photos: Irene Boles. Page 207 photos: Peter Walker, Three Chairs Photography. With permission from Student Volunteer Army Foundation.
A PDF copy of pages 210-211 of the book Christchurch: The Transitional City Pt IV. The pages document the transitional project 'St Luke's Labyrinth'. Page 210 photos: Irene Boles. Page 211 photos: Peter Walker, Three Chairs Photography. With permission from Student Volunteer Army Foundation.
Since Standing Room Only started some of the biggest changes we've seen in attitudes towards art and artists has happened in Otautahi Christchurch. How much artists contributed to the city's emotional recovery from the earthquakes through projects like Gap Filler, but also how many individual people created and shared their work. Before the quakes, Neil Dawson's monumental sculpture The Challice in the Square was initially criticised, but within days of its unveiling it became an impromptu shrine for the New York victims of 9/11. Back in 1998, the SCAPE Public Art started commissioning large outdoor works by international and Kiwi sculptors and artists. Some stayed but most of them were temporary. Some attracted criticism but they certainly got people talking. As SCAPE reaches its quarter century, its founder and Executive Director Deborah McCormick is standing down in March next year. Deborah's last SCAPE will see her tick off one of her long held ambitions - to secure a permanent sculpture for Christchurch by Auckland-based artist Dr Brett Graham. Lynn Freeman talks with Deborah and Brett, first asking Deborah to take us back to the lightbulb moment that led to SCAPE public art event.
The Canterbury earthquake sequence of 2010-2011 wrought ruptures in not only the physical landscape of Canterbury and Christchurch’s material form, but also in its social, economic, and political fabrics and the lives of Christchurch inhabitants. In the years that followed, the widespread demolition of the CBD that followed the earthquakes produced a bleak landscape of grey rubble punctuated by damaged, abandoned buildings. It was into this post-earthquake landscape that Gap Filler and other ‘transitional’ organisations inserted playful, creative, experimental projects to bring life and energy back into the CBD. This thesis examines those interventions and the development of the ‘Transitional Movement’ between July 2013 and June 2015 via the methods of walking interviews and participant observation. This critical period in Christchurch’s recovery serves as an example of what happens when do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism is done at scale across the CBD and what urban experimentation can offer city-making. Through an understanding of space as produced, informed by Lefebvre’s thinking, I explore how these creative urban interventions manifested a different temporality to orthodox planning and demonstrate how the ‘soft’ politics of these interventions contain the potential for gentrification and also a more radical politics of the city, by creating an opening space for difference.