Capital Day
Balancing on a kayak in the middle of Wellington Harbour with the city’s wild winds whipping around you can be a strange place to create art.
Street artist Dside, aka Damin Radford Scott, has created his art all around the world – from scorching hot conditions in America to snow in Canada and around the gusty streets of Wellington. ‘‘I’ve been in some pretty extreme wind, which is pretty hard because it blows away the paint.’’
Dside stands on his kayak and paints as he goes. Strangely enough, the biggest challenge working on the ocean isn’t the wind, he says, but rather that when he pushes down the paintbrush, it pushes him away from his canvas.
Working in a hotel room is a nice change of pace. He’s spent the last few days creating a ‘‘mostly’’ black and white line drawing in a room at the QT Museum Wellington hotel.
‘‘[The design] is very much inspired by what’s here and what’s around. It’s basically drawing not quite a bird’s eye view but an angled view of the city.’’
Dside is part of a judging panel for a design competition aimed at creating art behind the beds in nine harbour-facing rooms at the hotel.
Between two and six artists will be chosen and their names announced in late June.
As well as being a judge, Dside has also found himself adding his own artistic flair to the wall of one hotel room. He’s letting the artwork evolve and change as he creates it. ‘‘I like to see what the wall says. Obviously, I could design something on a computer but it’s a flat image.’’
With inside pieces, you have to consider factors such as how the lighting changes throughout the day and the different angles that people will see the work from, he said.
His piece will contain a lot of detail, so every time guests enter the room, they will see something new. ‘‘It’s very much inspired by what’s around.’’
Within his city design, there will be animals wandering the streets and little details that evolved over its creation.
The hotel itself is well known for the large art collection adorning its walls; among them a toast portrait of former prime minister John Key.
Dside said he knew people with artworks on the wall and was excited to be working in the same space.