The smallest reconstruction in ōtautahi is finally complete

In the last four years, an artist has been rebuilding the lost city’s lost icons.

It’s a Friday morning and Mike Beer, also known as Ghostcat, is flying over the Pūmanawa Gallery in ōTautah making last minute adjustments. “These are really from Canterbury’s sale courtyards,” he says, gesturing to some concrete gap sitting on a window sill. He leans his head. “Does it look very upstairs? Or would you have them on the floor?” Before I can answer, it will move a light fit over a tattoo and wizard.

No surprise that beer is obsessed with the most delicate details. In the last four years, it has been Meticulously recreating Christchurch’s lost icons as miniatures built in scratches for your ghost project in every corner. Now, with all 13 buildings on the art center and a accompanying coffee table book, people can revisit local access points after the earthquake, including Baby Pink Atami Bathhouse and Ornate Repertory Theater.

“I thought this would be a one -year project, but it took a long time,” Beer laughed as we walked the gallery. “I needed a long time to do Christchurch justice – I can look at everything here now and know that I did everything I can.” This level of service can be found in everything from the small distribution of cosmic singing parties to the hottest dirty window in the fish and chips store.

We stopped outside the Smith Bookstore, where beer doubled 5,000 tiny books with some help from family and friends. The collaboration has not stopped there – he asked followers on social media to choose a significant book to be included in the stores facade and included classics such as the very hungry caterpillar, the memories of a geisha and even fifty shades of gray. I squeezed my eyes to read the titles and suggest that he should have very good eyes. “No more,” he laughs.

This is just one of the numerous ways in which the Christchurch community has contributed to ghosts everywhere. In his tiny rendering of the Canterbury sales courtyard, Beer got some of his street artists friends to come and recreate their miniature labels. With no high -resolution photographs or plants to work, he trusted the locals to fill the knowledge gaps, including an ex -wizard arcade functioning that designed a machine floor plan.

The accompanying coffee table book, linked locally by Mchargs and co-writing with Dr. Reuben Woods, also gets the daily stories of each location in the community in general. “It’s not about where the best coffee was, or the best food, it’s about the heart and sometimes the womb of these places,” says Beer. There is an atami thread that should probably be in a sealed section, but also many exciting rumors of the past.

“We have a great wizard when we interviewed the guy who had the place, Gary Walker,” says Beer. “He told us about how all local children found that if you rub your feet on the new carpet and create all this static, they would get free credit. This was called ‘Zapping’ and he said they lost thousands of dollars. It’s such a good story – they ended up taking a stick and landed the floor so that the kids could no longer do the machines.”

Last month, the beer visualized the project inside Christchurch Cathedral, marking the first time an artist used the space since the 2011 earthquake. “It was a very exciting day, especially with people not seeing it in the last 14 years, so there have been a lot of tears,” he says. “It’s such an important building and space for Christchurs, so I liked the idea that this project could give a new life contract and remind people that it can be used for other things.”

The full exhibition is now in at the Arts CenterAnd the beer has seen thousands of residents through the doors for a memory walk in the first week. “Without being tacky, it gave me a deeper knowledge of the city and the people, so I feel even more connected to Christchury now,” he says. “It seems quite special and overwhelming, because without the stories and support of people, none of this would have realized, you know?”

“It seems much bigger than just me as an artist – this is comprehensive of everyone.”