‍

Two new murals are under way in Gisborne’s CBD in the first instalment of Project Ataahua’s mural festival.

The award-winning Young Enterprise Scheme team from Gisborne Girls’ High has commissioned three murals, and they will be completed and ready to view around the beginning of May.

Project Ataahua chief executive Nitha Vashti said they saw an opportunity to enhance the region through public art.

“Through working with artists with a connection to Gisborne, we were able to commission murals that had a strong local story, invoking our main theme of journey.”

The first mural is at the Bright Street entrance of the HB Williams Memorial Library, created by artist Lina Marsh.

This mural is a collaboration project between Eastland Network, Gisborne District Council and Project Ataahua.

It is due to be completed in the next couple of weeks.

The second mural has begun on the Eastland Network Plunket transformer building, next to the Plunket building on Palmerston Road.

Gisborne artists Simon Lardelli and Steve Smith are each painting two sides of the building.

Smith said his work will become a landscape of connectiveness and would be made up of designs from different cultures.

“There will be tonal variations, with some of it faded to represent the distant past.”

He will incorporate things from the marae and bring it to the street.

“I hope people will interact with it and take photos of it once it is finished. The design is made up of symmetry, reflection and rotation.”

To read the full article, click here.