Image: Laura Forest
The vibrancy and colour of K’ Road’s outdoor art offering is
about to increase as the precinct gears up for its second All Fresco festival. The twelve large-scale
artworks which were realised at last year’s three-day street art event,
sponsored by K’ Road Business Association, are about to be augmented with nine
new works over the weekend beginning Friday 2 May. “It was always the plan to do another one and
make it an ongoing event,” says curator Ross Liew.
Nine artists from areas across Auckland, Tauranga and
Wellington will be gathering on K’ Road to execute their visual interpretations
of this much-loved street. And while
each will bring their individual style to their work, they will all be
encouraged to consider the history and stories behind their allocated walls in
their creative efforts. “We want them to
respond to the area and address some of the things which are specific to this
community,” says Ross.
The proven skill and experience of artists has been a big
factor in selecting participants, he says, “because it’s not particularly easy
working large scale and outside. If you
look at the first All Fresco, it rained for the full three days and, if you
haven’t dealt with that before, it’s probably not the best place to be dealing
with it for the first time.”
Onlookers can expect to see work from artists such as Mt
Maunganui’s Owen Dippie, a traditional portraiture-style outdoor artist,
Auckland’s Tania Jade, (formerly Misery) known for her doe-eyed manga-inspired
figures and Wellington’s BMD duo, who display a penchant for depicting large
format animals, not always in one piece.
And the three-day timeframe they will be working to offers spectators a
rare glimpse into the underlying process each employs.
“There’s a bit of mystery in how large art is
created and if you’re interested in the ‘how’ of an artist’s work method, All
Fresco is like having an open studio,” says Ross. He’s excited about seeing new walls added to what has now
become K’ Road’s Street Art Tour circuit and, in particular, by the potential
inclusion of the wall on the side of the reservoir on the corner of Ponsonby
and K’ Roads because of its importance as a gateway from one neighbourhood to
another.
But even as the K’ Road Street Art Tour expands with each new
All Fresco, its curator is aware that street art is a temporary art form. “We don’t consider any of these artworks to
be permanent. The lifespan of some might
be a short as one year. I think a really
quite important part of the nature of this is that it’s temporary and it’s
updated and it’s ongoing. It’s really
just about enhancing the environment and providing food for thought.”
All Fresco will kick off with an exhibition of participating
artist’s studio-based work on Thursday night in conjunction with K’ Road’s late
night art event First Thursdays. Artists
will then be ensconced at their designated sites in and around K’ Road from
Friday 2nd through to Sunday 4th May. For more information on wall locations and
updates on events as they unfold visit www.allfresco.co.nz
