Many of you will know that early this year I became embroiled in a rather public battle with Auckland Council over the removal of an artwork on Poynten Tce painted by Berst, Deus and myself. You can read back through the posts right here on this blog if you’re not already familiar with the whole saga. A lot of you are probably already up to speed though and so I’ll cut right to the chase.

A couple of weeks ago I met with Rob Garret who is Auckland Council’s public arts facilitator and we came to a very amicable agreement – one that is going to enable a positive outcome that will benefit everyone involved and hopefully also benefit many others.

The Council agreed to withdraw their call for submissions for the new mural and have instead agreed to make a settlement with me on behalf of the artists. I was asked to price out a fair figure on par with what we would charge for a similar sized mural work in a commercial situation. I came up with the figure of $10,440.00 which breaks down like this:

Materials: $3,460.00
Access Equipment: $1,100.00
Artist fees: $5,700.00

This morning we found that the amount of $10,440.00 + GST had been deposited into our account and as promised we put it to some charitable causes – after we paid the GST direct to the Government of course! This is where the money went:

$4,394.00 - Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
$4,394.00 – Canterbury SPCA Earthquake Appeal

And in light of the passing of NYC graffiti Legend Case2 last week – we donated the remaining $1,316.00 USD needed to reach their goal of $5,400.00 for his funeral costs.

So that’s the first aspect of this all sorted – what about the art work?

At this stage – we can’t paint the replacement mural at Poynten Tce but in the next couple of weeks I will seek to talk directly with the landlords there and see if we can just return things back to the way it was. We will paint and maintain that site again if possible. In the mean time, The K’ Road Business Association have come to us with an alternative location, which is the side of 420/Rising Sun etc, the side facing the motorway. In an ideal world we will paint both locations or at the very least just the 420 spot but I have pulled together a fantastic team of local artists to get involved and will make more announcements about the project as it develops. At this stage it will likely be towards the end of the year as everyone involved are over-committed with their own projects for at least the next 2 months.

My vision in general though is to go a step further -  I want to work with the people of K’ Road and Cross St  to get as much public art installed/painted as possible over the next year. This battle has been stressful at times but the outcome is positive and I think everyone can enjoy that. I’m optimistic that there is change ahead in how the Council starts to think about art in public space and I’m grateful, humbled and inspired by how many people were outspoken with their support on this whole issue. I would in particular like to thank Cut Collective for initiating the petition and to all the people that signed it, Barb and Cleo at the KBA, Russell Brown, Peter McLennan and Hamish Keith for everything said and done throughout this drama. I would also like to thank Saber AWR for really pushing this issue on twitter and gathering the initial momentum that caught Mayor Len Brown’s attention.

Lastly, there is still in my opinion a huge disconnect between the ‘enforcement arm’ of the Council, elected Councillors and the idealistic people in there pushing for positive change in our city. I do feel optimistic though. I hope that if anything this has illustrated that people like me, that like or do graffiti do care and have a vision for this city just like anyone else. I hope we can engage and work more often towards creating positive projects that come with compromise and understanding rather than just applying robotic bureaucratic measures to every issue that comes about. I hope that we can start to see return this city to a place where everyone can feel a sense of belonging and ownership, where things aren’t constantly standardized, painted grey or rebuilt purely as a veneer to impress foreign Rugby punters. Like I said – today I feel optimistic.

Here’s an update for everyone about the situation with the Poynten Tce wall. This morning I got a twitter notification that Auckland Council was now following me. I felt a range of emotions about this but came to the conclusion they must still be trying to make contact with me to speak about the whole scenario – I had heard whispers they wanted to drag me back into the unnecessary bureaucratic procedure around the creation of the new mural, something I just can’t do out of principal because I feel that enough time has been wasted already. I checked my twitter feed to see this posted:

To view large click here

This is a piece I’ve worked on over the past 3 (maybe 4) weekends for my good friend Revok. I need to be honest – after the really killer pieces Berst pulled out for Revok last month I found myself motivated to bring my A-game and rock something super detailed too (feeling left out haha). I haven’t really painted many other peoples names during my time writing but this is actually the 3rd Revok piece I’ve done. When you meet an artist that you really admire and they give you the time of day – it’s truly humbling and inspiring thing. When that artist becomes a friend who time and time again goes out on a limb for you – sticks up for you and just seems to be staunchly in your corner – there’s no way to explain that feeling. I’ve never asked or expected that type of support from anyone – not even my crew. I’ve always allowed the people around me to be as neutral as they want when it comes to me because I am a fairly polarizing person and I know that about myself. This is the best way for me to express my gratitude – through a painting I had a lot of fun as well as challenges creating.

I’m not sure if people have noticed I have a particular style of shading that I have been doing for the last year or so – it generally involves using the Astro cap half pressure – creating a dissipated splatter, almost like a half tone effect when you look at it up close. It was a slow process but fulfilling for me when viewed up close. That’s the thing – it was completely redundant in a photo and was really becoming an exercise in absolute futility. Even still I was fixated with it as a technique and not ready to let it go. I was always a fast painter so people around me were getting vexed as to why I was becoming the slowest on the wall.

June last year Rime (the next person due a really nice piece I think!) randomly gave me a blaster cap to play around with. I put it in my jacket pocket and forgot about it completely until about a month ago. It was funny – I pulled it out at our studio and explained what it was, everyone gathered around marveling over it like it was the holy grail. We went outside and I did that ‘A’ you can see off to the side of my piece. We all got really excited – I did a second ‘A’. Berst told Snek to turn it into a ‘LA’ and he crossed the line too high, we all were giving him shit. I did some random splatter and then Berst was like “You could do that shading you’ve been doing with this”. It was a total lightening bolt moment.

So this Revok piece is almost completely shaded with a blaster cap. It’s the only one I know of here in NZ – it’s looking a little used and abused right now but I am addicted to this technique. It has so much substance, grit and texture. You can literally run your hand across this wall and feel the paint. I love it.

So yeah. I’ve uploaded this nice and big, download it and have a look up close at the details!

Firstly, the incidents as they happened:

Last Monday Component from Cut Collective turned up at my studio to tell me about the contractors painting out a mural site I have painted and maintained since 2001. I left my studio immediately and drove up to the wall to speak with the contractors, just to grasp how this had come to be. They were nice polite guys, both a little shocked that they were ordered to remove this mural and had actually thought it must be a mistake. I was told that it was due to a complaint from the owner as apparently the wall was illegally done. They said Tony Capton had made the call and it had maybe come from higher up. I was shocked to hear this, I new it was likely a mistake as although I wasn’t certain at the time whether the tenant I got permission from was the landlord or not – I was curious to investigate and find out conclusively.

I approached the KBA amongst other people in hope they could find answers quickly and learned that neither the tenant or landlord was that thrilled about the wall being painted grey – as well as neighbouring business owners and people in the community. In frustration I called upon Len Brown via twitter to give an explanation. After many other people joined in and demanded answers Len Brown replied and eventually made an apology. He informed me that his council officers would be making contact and sorting out a solution. I was happy with this outcome, it seemed like an unlikely victory and I was optimistic about working together with the council to put a new work up on the wall.

Barbara From the KBA was approached and ended up in a discussion with Council on my behalf about fixing the situation. Rob Shields, the council graffiti prevention officer somehow became involved and had prior to the meeting taken steps to contact the landlords – convincing them that he should ‘Project manage’ the creation of a replacement mural. Barbara could see no other alternative as far as dealing with them at this stage and opted to discontinue her involvement from there.

I was made aware of Rob’s involvement and voiced my disapproval. I have an interesting past with Rob Shields to say the least – to most that should be obvious considering who I am, what I do and who he is. I don’t care to delve into all the details at this stage other than to say that since I refused to be under his thumb about 9 years ago he has made it his mission to sabotage and interfere with a raft of positive projects I have worked on and also employed divide and conquer tactics to tarnish the reputations of myself and others in the graffiti scene. Needless to say – I don’t work with Rob Shields – Principally I have to consider it working with the enemy.

After John Brunton, the current tenant appeared in the Central leader voicing his disapproval of the mural’s removal, I approached him to have a discussion about proceeding with a new mural with no council involvement – a request he put to the landlords on my behalf.
I was phoned today, the 10th of March by John and told that the landlords were working with Rob Shields in selecting artists to paint a suitable mural which the council would pay for as an apology and if I wanted to be considered for the job I needed to submit concept sketches by next week. I was also told that there could be no ‘signatures’ or ‘names’ featured in the new work. Interesting request considering the work I specialise in and am known primarily for right?

So here’s the underlying problem with this whole scenario:

1. Firstly and most importantly – this is a council created problem. That is both initially and in the solution offered. Big pile of unnecessary drama made created by the council. There was no problem in the way it was before, in fact far from it.

2. The council removed this mural illegally.

3. I have painted and maintained this mural site for around a decade, since world renown, German artist Can Two’s first visit in 2001. A friend of mine worked at the bar, and she asked the previous owner who said yes. Whether she got permission from the landlords is not something I can confirm for certain but obviously there was no objection to the work we were ding as we painted murals there consistently for 10 years – often there for several days at a time.

4. The Murals have all been painted from the artists own pockets – never to a specific brief but to always to a high standard. On the odd occasion, the previous tenant gave me a small amount of money and almost always a tray of soft drinks for the troops while we worked on the wall.

5. The site has become iconic for having some of the best graffiti work around the K-Rd area and has been photographed, used as backdrops for film and TV and has over the years featured work from a host of amazing international and local artists.

6. Rob Shields is the graffiti prevention officer – he should not given the opportunity to dictate the content of the new work when he has an obvious prejudice against art of this style and also against the artists themselves.

7. No other artist should be considered in contention for the job painting the replacement mural. This is disrespectful and shows how little understanding of public art the council have. The work that was removed was painted mostly by me and not really with the financial support from nor objection of the landlords it seems strange to gift the landlords a new mural when the only people robbed of anything are myself and the other artists – the landlords have been indifferent to the issue all along so really they likely wouldn’t have made any noise about this hadn’t I and likeminded people in the community brought it to the attention of Len Brown.

8. The ‘no signatures’ angle is very typical of Rob Shields statements in media about stamping out ‘name-based fame’ in public art. It seems hard for me to fathom this decision has not been influenced by him.

9. Council funded murals deemed as ‘acceptable’ by Rob Shields are generally awful in my opinion. Take a look at the atrocious mural work near the New Market station and the putrid historic city-scape at the Boston road station for example. Neither of these paintings could be deemed as current, compelling or particularly well executed for that matter. One of my only dealings with Rob Shields on a mural project he had us paint people mowing lawns. I am not kidding.

10. The last mural was painted over three 12-16 hour days. It was painted during the middle of winter and into the night – sometimes even the early hours of the morning. Around 80 spray cans were used and it was exhaustive and time consuming as we broke a lot of new ground with this painting. For that reason this work was also of sentimental value, although we would have liked to have done an update this year to keep it fresh.

11. The council and Landlords both neglect to understand the merit of my work and the reason this site was well respected was primarily because of it’s integrity. The fact that it was done without any influence outside of what myself and friends wanted to paint was why it was so good. The idea of ‘historical themed murals’ may seem like a way to please a broader group of people but realistically most locals are discerning enough to see through that. This is also not reflective of the people of K-Rd, maybe a conservative neighbourhood. K-Rd is edgy and our local area – we are well known characters and frequent the local cafes and shops. Everyone knows us around there.

12. The idea of the council rewarding other artists for painting a mural they deem as ‘acceptable’ when the only people wronged as far as I can see are the artists and the community is despicable. Especially when I have offered to paint the new mural for free without their involvement. The landlords could remain indifferent, the tenants can be happy with a new work on the side of their premises, I can continue having a platform to do cutting edge pieces with no council influence and the local community can remain happy – problem solved.

There’s a lot more I want to say about this. I’m shocked, pretty mad, disappointed and feel more disillusioned with bureaucracy than ever before. What can I do? It’s been depressing enough seeing the whole city systematically painted grey in preparation for the Rugby World Cup – but it extending to this level is sad. I think the vision for this city is something that extends beyond a right of bureaucrats and politicians – it’s a right we all share. I thank everyone that has been vocal and supportive through this and hope it can be the catalyst of for change and inspiration for us all to make noise when we feel local government lose sight of what’s right for the areas of the city we inhabit.

A while ago I painted this piece to give as an exclusive for a small 1 page segment about colour theory in Infamous magazine. I spoke in brief about my approach to colour at the time – which was going through two phases: one that drew from the random arrangement found in crystal formations. The second was drawing inspiration from the natural environment around me – the places I find sentimental like the West Coast of Auckland.

Here is an example of how I have started doing this. The piece is about 5 months old so certain aspects of the Diamondism approach to letter treatment have resolved themselves since this one but I do love the way the colours and textures of my favourite places are present in this work. Click on it to see or download it in a bigger size and analyze for yourself!