ITI Articles

Next time you walk past the site of Glover Park in central Wellington you’ll see that instead of the familiar small urban park, the view is now of a wall of murals done in very different styles.

Reconstruction of Glover Park is expected to take six to nine months and, with this in mind, the Wellington City Council decided to take the opportunity to promote the work of a group of local artists. They called for local artists to submit designs – to any theme and in any style – and the selected 10 designs were to be made up as murals. Later, the hoardings were expanded and a further six murals were commissioned.

Amongst the artists who submitted designs that were chosen, were tutors and students of The Learning Connexion (TLC). JoElle Gragilla, one of TLC’s newest extramural Tutors, is one of the artists whose work is on display (see Joelle and mural in first picture). All the murals are 1.4 metres high and 4.8 metres long. Due to the size of the project, JoElle had to find a large space in which to work (no easy feat as artists looking for large, affordable space will know) and access to this space was also restricted. Ultimately, she worked on her mural over the course of six weeks, which meant long hours over the weekends, while also working as a full time Extramural Tutor.

Her mural features trees, one of JoElle’s favourite subject matters. JoElle only recently moved to New Zealand, so the mural project gave her the opportunity to study NZ native trees, particularly those indigenous to this area. Her work features seven trees in a monochromatic silhouette, with close-ups of seeds and flowers from each tree in full colour. There are also interesting facts about each tree, and a question as to which flower or seed belongs to which silhouette. This interactive educational aspect reflects JoElle’s strong background and interest in education.

In contrast to JoElle’s painterly interpretation, Aaron Frater carved into his mural surface with an angle grinder and sandpaper, creating low relief carving onto which he applied paint (see second picture). This reflects his current work, which consists of painted sculptures. He has a great passion for public works of art, and has recently taken part in large public art shows and sculpture symposiums, both as artist and as an organiser/volunteer. Both large-scale sculpture and murals are art forms Aaron is keen to continue to work in – as well as his small-scale jewellery work in bone, stone and metal.

So next time you are in downtown Wellington, in the vicinity of Glover Park, wander by and check out the artwork displayed on Ghuznee and Garrett Streets. See if you can figure out which flower belongs to which tree, and enjoy a three-dimensional interpretation of what is most often a flat surface.