Eight new giant murals have appeared around Christchurch as the city welcomes the Spectrum Street Art Festival for the second time.
Bobby Hung (right) and assistant Danae Ripley in front of the artist's mural on Gloucester Street. Photo: RNZ / Sally Murphy
The festival - which is held at the Hereford Street YMCA and around the city - attracted more than 60,000 people last year, and organisers are aiming to get 100,000 people to the festival this year.
This year's festival pays homage to the humble marker pen, the fundamental tool of the trade.
Festival organiser George Shaw said everything about this year's event was brand new.
"We have been preparing for the last three and a half months, building walls and figuring out where to install the lights. It has been hard work, but a lot of fun and it will all be worth it when the doors open for the first time."
Mr Shaw said street art was becoming more popular than contemporary art and Christchurch was leading the way in New Zealand.
"Street art is attractive to the eye, what we try and do is create art work which people can interact with, art that makes then think about the society they live in.
"It's like the cinema verses the theater, most galleries you go to are the same, art work on the wall which you look at, what we are doing is creating something completely different," Mr Shaw said.
One example was a art work in the exhibit was one made of 27 scaffolding planks, 4.2 metres high.
Auckland artist Flox painted a back-country scene, complete with native forest, on the planks which have been separated out so people can walk through the artwork.
Another room in the exhibition mirrors scenes around Christchurch city.
"It has been made to look like a broken building, there are toilets and sinks attached to the wall high off the ground, as if the floor as fallen away, that's exactly what we saw in the central city after the earthquakes."
Mr Shaw said visiting artists from around the world tell him there was nothing else like Spectrum around the world.
"I think there are already more large murals in Christchurch than anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, the city is a blank canvas."
Bobby Hung - who works under the name Berst - painted a mural for the festival and said it was a privilege to be apart of Spectrum.
His giant mural on Gloucester Street derived from Maori methodology.
"In Maori methodology they always talk about the three worlds, the sky, the earth and the sea, so this artwork is made up of creatures who live in the sea."
The painting in three sections includes jellyfish, cave creatures and sea serpents.
Mr Hung said he thought about the design for about a week before he started painting.
"It took five days to actually paint with the help of my friend Danae Ripley. Without her it would easily take me ten days."
Mr Hung said working in the Christchurch environment has its own challenges including the two shipping containers in front of his wall and scaffolding up one side, which belong to the neighboring building site.
"Although Christchurch has its own challenges being apart of Spectrum is a huge opportunity, the city is full of vacant spaces, the art work is activating them and providing life for the city."
Mr Hung, who is a lecturer of design and visual arts at Unitec Institute of Technology, said Christchurch boasts more opportunities for street art than Auckland.
With new buildings going up and damaged ones still being pulled down around the city, Mr Hung was fine with the reality his work would not last forever.
"I'm not a pretentious artist, it is the nature of working outdoors; the colour fades, it chips away, things grow in front of it, the building may even be pulled down that's just the way it is."
The festival runs until April next year.
