The Russell Lupins of The South Island display a magnificent array of crayonbox colours in the summertime. Covering fields and riverbeds and lining the edges of the highways of the Central South Island, they create a heady sense of scenic wonder that belies their true nature of epidemic weed status, (as they negatively impacts on the habitat of threatened braided riverbed birds). In 2009 I explored these opposing sentiments with an 'illegal' street art project 'beautifying' Grey Lynn, Auckland City. Essentially the ongoing work is an analogy for the post-colonial realisations I've had after looking a little harder at the physical and cultural landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand.
