Thanks to graffiti artists for adding colour to grey city
Ican’t remember when I first met Wongi Wilson. He’s younger than I but I feel like we moved in similar circles for so long that by the time we met I already knew of him.
It’s easy to forget that the hip-hop community in Christchurch used to be so small that everyone involved knew everyone else.
It was skateboarders in the 1990s that first brought hip-hop – dance, graffiti and music – into the city. And for a bunch of kids dying to identify as something different from the mainstream Christchurch world of rugby, rugby and rugby, hip-hop was an alluring mistress.
By the time guys like Wongi grew into their big-boy shorts, something akin to a scene was happening in Christchurch – or O¯ tautahi as those involved proudly printed on their hoodies.
I’ve just watched Wongi paint one of the giant spray cans that have been installed on the Manchester and Lichfield Street corners in the central city.
The artwork is fantastic and in a world where I’ve become skeptical of half the rubbish masquerading as art, I love to see the work of skilled practitioners.
A quick aside: If a Government minister ‘‘tagging’’ her initials at the launch isn’t a sign of how mainstream hip-hop culture has become, then I don’t know what is.
What next? Ministers driving campervans on the wrong side of the road? Ministers crapping in freedom camping locations?
Something so completely villainised can eventually have uptake from the sods running the place – they tend to arrive a few decades late to the party.
Anyway – I’ve just watched Wongi paint up his spray can and his skills seem to get next level with each mural.
It stopped me in my tracks. Made me look at the work in wonder. What talent.
Then I headed down to the corner of St Asaph and Colombo Streets where on the Tradestaff building you can see what must have been one of Wongi’s first murals.
It’s not bad. But it’s not the work of the world-class artist Wongi’s become.
Maybe someone can enlighten me – I’ve been unable to find my source – but I once read a great statement along the lines of: good art lets you see an artist come to grips with his or her limitations.
I was sure it was Kurt Vonnegut – he of all the best quotes – it’s just so good it must have been.
My point is that in that first mural you can see a young guy starting out and full of limitations. If you follow Wongi Wilson, you can see with each mural his skill-set grows.
But it’s not until you see the next mural that you can see the limitations in the one that came before.
Street art has formed a big part of the post-quake Christchurch landscape. It’s proven to be a good way to decorate a half-built city.
The impact of George Shaw and Shannon Webster’s Oi You exhibition that they brought to Christchurch in the years following the quakes shouldn’t be underestimated.
These guys – who have since been treated like crap by an establishment dying for control – put Christchurch on a global street art map.
I see it every day in the city. Tourists wandering about visiting all the great murals and defining our city not by some mediocre justice precinct or imaginary swimming pool, but by the art of a group of people who showed up and injected some colour into what could potentially be a grey city.
As our city grows from the ashes, so too do talented people intent on making Christchurch a better place to live.
Hey Wongi – thanks for the art, bro. It’s made me smile.