Two artists with acutely-tuned senses of what it takes to make a city have been appearing in the news. In Mike Beer’s case the focus is on crafting precision models of lost Christchurch buildings, while street artist Cameron Hunt has been injecting humour into the capital.

A new exhibition by Beer, aka Ghostcat (Instagram @, has opened at the Pūmanawa Gallery in The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora in Ōtautahi Christchurch. The new show, called ‘Ghosts on Every Corner’, features 13 of Mike’s models of lost Christchurch buildings like the Cathedral Square Police Kiosk, the Repertory Theatre and the Harbour Light Theatre in Lyttelton.

Canterbury Museum holds two of Mike’s incredibly detailed scratch-built models in the collection. Mike’s model of the historic Canterbury Jockey Club building, which used to stand on Oxford Terrace until it was demolished in 2011, is on display at ‘Quake City’.

Mike also built a model of the E Wheeler & Son photographic studio from ‘The Christchurch Street’ gallery at Canterbury Museum. The model was then decorated with graffiti and displayed as part of the ‘SHIFT: Urban Art Takeover’ exhibition held at the Museum in 2022. ‘Ghosts on Every Corner’ runs until 30 April.

Source: 1 News | 30 March 2025: Cameron Hunt’s been installing fake Wellington City Council signs in iconic spots.

“I’m just putting them there for the people to enjoy, to have a bit of fun,” Hunt told 1News. The first sign was noticed in the Wellington Botanic Garden’s pond, warning people not to “feed the crocodiles”.

The phone number on the sign was for the Platypus shoe store on Manners St – Wellington’s largest distributor of croc shoes. A second sign popped up in the water feature at Te Aro Park — offering free scuba diving lessons at 11am every Saturday. The phone number on the sign was for Tony’s Tyre Service on Cambridge Tce.

“It’s just so fun. I love everything about it, from the creativity to coming up with the ideas to the mischief of installing them, getting them in the streets, making art – just everything about it. It just encompasses me,” Hunt said.

Each sign also had “Absolutely Positively Ridiculous” logos – a play on Wellington City Council’s “Absolutely Positively Wellington” branding.Wellington City Council’s chief economic and engagement officer Anna Calver told 1News she also found the signs funny. “I think Wellington could do with a good injection of humour right now and this artist has obviously got it absolutely bang on,” Calver said.However, some signs were removed to avoid any disappointment or confusion. “We had to remove the ‘don’t feed the crocodiles’ sign in the Botanic Gardens because it was causing a bit of confusion for our out-of-town visitors like cruise ship passengers, people who might not know that New Zealand doesn’t have any crocodiles.”

Hunt’s other art installations have included turning speed cameras into robots, changing messages on construction signs, and gathering large amounts of road cones.