Auckland. April 2009. AjrI’m a sucker for urban graphics of any kind – posters, graffiti, billboards, graphics, anything – so it was a foregone conclusion that I would halt the car on Ponsonby Road in Auckland, so I could get out and photograph this mural. This, I should point out, is only one small section of a huge community project that gives life to hoardings near the intersection of Karangahape and Ponsonby Roads. This particular section was led by Barbara Joseph, who helped the children involved research New Zealand’s pre-settlement flora and fauna in Auckland’s Western Bays region. The children’s composite work was silk screened and stencilled and attached to the hoardings. Love it!
Whenever I go into Auckland's SKYCITY Casino to update Frommers NZ travel guide, I'm always slightly taken aback by the sight of this huge Maori carving - of which I know absolutely nothing about - standing in the middle of the entry atrium with clusters of advertising boards huddled around its base.
It's an unlikely and incongruous setting for a traditional Maori carving in one sense; but on the other hand, SKYCITY has one of the best New Zealand art collections in the country, featuring the works of both contemporary and traditional Maori and pakeha artists. In that sense it is perfectly placed and certainly it is admired by hundreds of people every day. www.skycity.co.nz 
