Street art sells

"One thing Ross said that made it clear for me, he talked about the intention behind it,” says Wickham. “And I think that’s the same with all art – if the intention is to vandalise or destroy someone’s property, that’s not something they would actually do. Everybody’s different in the collective. For him, he doesn’t want to encourage anyone down the wrong track.”

Liew confirms that individuals within Cut Collective retain their autonomy as practising artists, be it inside or outside a gallery, and says the placement of work is “something that each individual navigates within their own practice and under their own identity”.
Creating art on the street clearly still holds a lot of appeal for the artists. Evidence of Component’s trips to Wellington can be found in various locations around the city. “Yes, he left a little memento for us,” says Wickham.

Liew says work designed or intended for the street is often diluted or even totally voided when shown in the context of a gallery. “Anyone who has dealt with art-making on even a semi-serious level realises context is key. Going to a specific space to look at art is a completely different experience to encountering it in amongst your daily business.”

Accessibility is also important to the collective when it comes to the commercial side of things. They’re selling limited-edition screenprints, partly as a reaction to the recession.

“Art is up here in price point and T-shirts down there, but it’s meeting that middle bracket,” says King. “People aren’t so keen to shell out two grand for a painting at the moment, but two hundred bucks for a print is quite a different thing.”

Live painting is also really attractive to the collective – it is the constant that binds them as colleagues and it works well as a spectator sport. “We get really good spectator involvement for the last 60% of the painting,” says Liew. “The first 40% is all ground work and people can’t see much. The very last thing is the top stencil with the detail and line work and dark colour. As it gets towards the end, it just unfolds, and there’s applause.”

So, has there been a demand for street art that hasn’t been met? Liew says the corporate world is really jumping on board. “It’s the aesthetic thing that is attractive but there’s also now knowledge of it amongst the general public and a large interest in it. Of course, advertising reacts to those vibes – it’s such a fluid thing, always looking for whatever’s emerging.”

But there’s no point in using themes of culture that no one knows about, he says. “You need to reach a threshold where enough people know about it and there’s a buzz but it’s still cool and fresh.”

He says it’s obviously there for some marketers because for some years they’ve employed stencils and similar approaches in guerrilla marketing, but he also urges caution. “If I was an advertiser, I’d be careful because the backlash against something inauthentic can be quite strong. That’s not just from the artists themselves but from the fans of it.

“Essentially, what they like so much about it is that it’s unsanctioned art or messaging in a space that’s always been dominated by advertising. The fact that it’s something not being paid for by someone advertising something is where its strength lies.”