Giant painting outside Christchurch Art Gallery finished

A giant painting on the eastern wall of Christchurch Art Gallery took three weeks to create.

Designed by Kelcy Taratoa, two commercial painters, working to Taratoa’s design, were needed to create the 36m long mural named Te Tāhū o ngā Maunga Tūmatakahuki.

The work is part of Christchurch Art Gallery’s new exhibition, Te Wheke: Pathways across Oceania, which opens on Saturday, May 30.

Best viewed from Worcester Boulevard, Taratoa’s artwork replaces Kay Rosen's Here are the people and there is the steeple, which had occupied the eastern wall of the gallery since 2012.

The gallery's lead curator Felicity Milburn said Taratoa’s artwork weaves together a story of exploration and connection, in line with Te Wheke’s wider themes of navigation, belonging and identity.

“Echoing the overlapping forms of the Māori art of tukutuku, this painting is about everything that binds us together, from the ocean to the stars," Milburn said.

“Within the painting’s abstract composition are islands, a maunga (mountain) and kāhui whetū (cluster of stars).

"They relate to early voyages of discovery across the Pacific and how whakapapa (genealogy) can unite people in a common kaupapa, or purpose.”

Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania is an immersive exhibition that explores art through our connections with the Pacific.

Entry to the exhibition will be free.