Matt Liggins (Ngāti Ruanui), the organiser of Urban Art Village, is an architect, artist and teacher from The University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning. In 2022, his students’ participation in the project offered university course credits.

Liggins has previously displayed work for Auckland Art Week in 2016, 2018 and 2020, returning this year with ‘Friendship Waka’: “a parasitical project booth that attaches to his Toyota Vanguard bonnet to whisk the public on a journey around Aotearoa, or wherever your imagination takes you.”

Recently, Liggins spoke at Tedx in Auckland in 2021 about his practice of combining art and architectural projects in Aotearoa. The next installation work to look out for from Liggins is the ‘Eucildean tower’ for Splore music festival 2023.

Below are this year’s Urban Art Village installations:

Matt Liggins | Friendship Waka

Some of life’s best memories occur in a car on a road trip. As cheesy as it sounds, the destination isn’t important, it’s all about the journey. Just like Life. Due to Aotearoa’s COVID lockdown and lack of both domestic and international travel, Matt has conceived of ‘Friendship Waka’: a parasitical project booth which attaches to his Toyota Vanguard bonnet to whisk the public on a journey around Aotearoa, or wherever your imagination takes you.

Maxine Goon | This is an Education Emergency

The Social Dreamers invite you to participate in This is an Education Emergency, a collaborative installation advocating for shifts in tertiary education across Aotearoa to better value people over capital. Come use Chalk, Conversation and (hot) Cocoa to reimagine your dream day at school.

Gujin Chung, Gujin Chung, Yifan Liu, Yilin Liu | Housing Bubble

Responding to the growing precarity of Aotearoa’s housing market, this installation offers a satirical commentary on some of the issue’s contributing factors. Issues of housing density, property investment, NIMBY-ists, low-quality developments and the opposition to better public transport are personified into four characters AKA ‘The Four Horsemen of the Housing Bubble.’ The structure consists of an inflatable PVC bubble, 3 metres in diameter, that envelopes a steel plumbing pipe structure. The inflation of the bubble responds to the interaction of the users.

Madeline Brown, Betty Han and Reiden Le’Jan Purificacion | WHO AM I?

How can a built structure aid in reconnecting an individual to their Whakapapa and provide a sense of belonging to one’s culture? Using the concept of an infinity mirror, the mirror box is meant to be a vessel to explore indigeneity and create a space for people to see themselves in the mirror and reflect on who they are.

Norm Dines, Gus Clelland, Cindy Zhang | Auckland’s Most Boring Office

Attention. Attention. How boring was your day at work? Certainly not as boring as this office. Continue about your repetitive, monotonous life. There is no reason to enter. It is neither exciting nor intriguing.

Anson Sieu, Kinki Lo, Evan Zhang, Johnny Jiang | The Supermarket of Thoughts

The Supermarket of Thoughts aims to reveal the greed of supermarkets and the change that needs to happen. It allows the public to share their thoughts on important matters, often hidden within the production processes of the products. There will be a combination of challenging, introspective and light-hearted questions.

Karl Poland, Robbie Anderson, Shelley Jiao | Kiwi Dreamer

In Aotearoa, New Zealand, we fixate on owning a detached home on a quarter-acre section, we’ve dubbed it the “Kiwi dream.” However, the Kiwi Dreamer is a response to the nightmare reality of this dream, disguised by a picturesque Ponsonby villa with a white picket fence, dainty mailbox, manicured hedge, and Beamer.

Phillip Lee & Yeri Lee | Undocumented Objects

Just like a house, a city is owned. Public spaces are never fully public and social spaces are never fully inclusive. On the street, there are different types of people; those who own and those who don’t, those who have access and those who are blocked, those who feel at home and those who are detached. And the antithesis; people who pass unacknowledged are the bypassers, the foreigners, the strangers, the homeless - the undocumented people of the city. What might interaction with undocumented people of the city look like? How would the architecture reflect the conversation?

Jack Wu, Oliver Ray Chaudhuri, Dianwang, Calvin Feng, William Chen, Binh Minh Ha | The Chairs in the Room, Quiet Beside the Elephant

A family of 25, bonded by their roots in a process of change and improvisation with limited means. These are ‘almost’ chairs; transfigured from their raw and processed timber beginnings, not quite civilised; not quite furniture. Once hosting conversations and inspiring imagination, this family will reunite on the 13th of October to reminisce and share stories of separate journeys. They are the empty seats at the table, quiet beside the elephant; no more than arranged material artefacts, waiting again to be reborn.

Heart of the City’s Art in the City 2022’s extensive programme is possible with initiatives from a number of city centre stakeholders including Auckland Council city centre targeted rate, Link Alliance, Britomart, Commercial Bay, Viaduct Harbour and Queen’s Arcade.