CHIMP - Difficult Land

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Gradients of hills roll to swampy wetland where Toitoi sway in the breeze. Buildings decay faster than they can be replaced.

This 2022 original artwork by CHIMP titled 'Difficult Land' is Acrylic, UV pigment and aerosol on panel. A one of a kind artwork that is signed and dated by the artist.

Size: 1200mm (W) x 1200mm (H) x 70mm (D)

About the artist:

Contemporary artist, CHIMP, sees the world for what it is: a series of abstractions layered atop one another, each grappling for centre stage. Once an adrenaline-hungry boy with a skateboard, now an artist painting the urban from his roots in nature. Free-diving Aotearoa's south coast and hiking Mt Everest basecamp are just pages of CHIMP’s story as an artist, something best developed in spray paint. Having mastered graphic design elements in his youth, he works primarily with spray paint for the destructive vs. reparatory qualities it poses. CHIMP carefully constructs paintings, murals and three-dimensional pieces that translate his vision of a world with no limits if you choose it to be so. For CHIMP, there’s no fun in a blank canvas, but sheer necessity to go beyond idle confines.

About the work: Escape Mechanism

Escape Mechanism responds to Aoteroa’s housing crisis. Millions watch increasing house prices with decreasing value in the places we should be able to escape to and call home. Our crumbling properties, emergency housing units and homeless shelters are mechanisms of escape and safety, for many they’ll represent tūrangawaewae. This collection of original paintings, poems and sculpture aims to visually capture the barriers, realities and solutions ahead for our nation struggling to secure affordable and safe housing.

Contemporary artist CHIMP began his journey spraying the walls of derelict buildings torn apart by earthquakes, weathering and landlord’s neglect. Today he paints outside the lines of our communities. His generation faces the most expensive housing market in New Zealand’s history, on top of debt for decades to come from pandemics, overseas trade disparities and a decreasing sense of hope across the board. Now, more than ever, the housing crisis will impact all corners of our growing population. CHIMP voices the concerns of fellow rangatahi in search of hope and change. His paintings represent different stages of the crisis, from flawed building blocks, unaffordable rents, landlords monopolising our cities and ignoring basic healthy home standards. He seeks consolation in cyberspace and conceptualises where we might escape to; copy & paste housing blocks, vertical builds and finally, makeshift housing.