Street wise
Graffiti or street art? Virtuosity or urban menace? While arguments rage over the definition, clandestine art of every colour is changing the face of the Christchurch CBD.
Graffiti or street art? Virtuosity or urban menace? While arguments rage over the definition, clandestine art of every colour is changing the face of the Christchurch CBD.
Entire suburbs were ‘red-zoned’ after the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch. Even now, the fate of these properties and the few residents still wrangling with authorities remains uncertain. Welcome to purgatory.
The devastating earthquakes have forced a re-evaluation of Christchurch’s heritage buildings. What should be demolished, what should remain? And what can bricks and mortar contribute to a city’s sense of place?
He came, he saw, he was put on hold.
Look closer. The straggling plants on the riverbank, the so-called weeds in the garden, the insect-eaten leaves on the forest’s edge—often ploughed, sprayed or simply ignored—are finding their way back into the medicine chest. And Māori herbal remedies, once derided and outlawed by an act of Parliament, are revealing their curative power.
Elaborately, painstakingly rendered upon solid rock, early Maori rock art was scribed into sandstone, scratched under granite overhangs, and painted in red kokowai and charcoal to point to food sources, record genealogy or confer tapu upon sites that served as both shelter and canvas for the first New Zealanders. But the drawings and etchings are susceptible to gradual environmental decay and the enthusiasm of those who visit to admire them. Despite enduring for centuries, these messages from another age are gradually fading from view.
Every Saturday in cities and suburbs, small towns and remote country districts, greens are mowed and rolled, mats put out, coins tossed, bowls delivered, scores kept, tea made. Enjoyed in New Zealand by 91,000 players, bowls ranks in popularity ahead of rugby or cricket and is capturing a new generation.
Over the last 30 years shopping has gone from necessity to major recreation, and the venues in which we spend out money and time have changes also. Increasingly we shop in malls, such as the vast and splendid Botany Town Centre in Manukau City seen here, or suburban centres containing clusters of megastores.
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