SCAPE Public Art has confirmed its new season dates for 2023, a twelve-week festival of free-to-view public art running from 25 November 2023 to 17 February 2024. The SCAPE season is a highlight of Ōtautahi Christchurch’s cultural calendar and the installation of eight new temporary artworks will serve as an incentive for residents and visitors to head out and explore their city this summer.

Season 2023 is the first in Tyson Campbell’s three-year tenure as SCAPE’s new Managing Curator. Campbell hand-picked each of the eight artists for their unique interpretations of the season theme, The Gift.

“The Gift is an invitation for people to consider the material, symbolic and metaphoric possibilities of gift-giving within communities,” says Campbell. “It’s something that can be interpreted in terms of capitalism and the pressure of gift-giving linked to the public holidays and personal celebrations that emerge throughout the year. Symbolically speaking, a gift can also be something like imparting knowledge to a descendant, or a relational gift—like a really good mentor who can change the way you see the world. The Gift is an exchange of things between people and it is with this theme that I hope to broaden and extend the possibilities of gifting.” 

The lineup of artists for 2023—Ming Ranginui, Te Ara Minhinnick, Synthia Bahati, Susu, Tūi Matira Ranapiri-Ransfield, Denise Porter-Howland, Priscilla Rose Howe, and Maioha Kara—represents a diverse cross-section of creative communities and cultures from around Aotearoa. Their newly commissioned artworks will range across a variety of different mediums and locations that will surprise, delight and challenge the public.

25 November 2023 – 17 February 2024