Filling In A Building’s Wounds With Scenes From Life

Architizer News

Filling In A Building’s Wounds With Scenes From Life

July 24, 2012

images courtesy of Mike Hewson

In February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake ripped through Christchurch, New Zealand, damaging much of the city’s infrastructure and prized architecture. Christchurch has seen many new cultural projects as part of a string of renewal and revitalization programs, including Shigeru Ban’s cardboard “Transitional Cathedral” and now, these large scale mixed media installations by Kiwi artist, Mike Hewson. The “murals” have been mounted on the plywood volumes that fill the haphazard voids of several heavily damaged buildings throughout the city.

The installation, which consists of a total of ten images, is entitled ‘Home to the Lost Spaces’ and pays homage to the former Christchurch Normal School. Using his own money as well as private donations, Hewson covered the buildings’ exteriors with a total of 130 square meters of plywood and mixed media images of artists and residents who lived and worked at the school. The stone complex, which is listed for impending demolition, has been given a breath of life with these images reminiscent of the function spaces that it once knew.