Walkers have enjoyed the murals on the seaside wall along Oriental Parade for many years. More recently a local house has had the same colourful treatment, and highly welcome it is too. Street artist Cinzah ‘Seekayem’ Merkens painted the frontage of No 134 Oriental Parade, next door to the swim shop. It makes me smile every time I walk past.
Bold and colourful, it uses elements of the surrounding flora and fauna, including the succulents growing in the owner’s garden. The wild plant and insect life on the waterfront have inspired him too. Top of the design is a tui, because these bold birds frequent the pohutakawa trees opposite and kept Cinzah company while he worked, with their chirrups and cheeky antics.
He wants to thank everyone who came by and expressed their appreciation while he was working and he also wants to give a massive thank-you to his client for having enough faith to give him such a free hand. We should give him thanks, too, for adding colour to our streetscape.
Cinzah drew and painted his way through high school. “Paper wasn’t big enough,” he says, “so a teacher gave me the tech room walls to paint!” He then moved on to the local skate bowl and painted there. At 17, an accident put him flat on his back, followed by six months in intensive rehab learning to walk again. But he didn’t let that hold him back too long. Soon he was painting once more, taking over galleries and studios but outgrowing them all.
He lived in Auckland for many years with his partner Ash and his two young children, but finally outgrew Auckland emotionally – as well as financially. “My whole generation is priced out of the market in Auckland. We weren’t getting ahead there. We were working around the clock just to live. We never saw each other.” So they moved to Napier where his first commission was to paint a fish and chip shop.
His street art can be seen around New Zealand now, including Auckland, New Plymouth, Mount Maunganui, Christchurch, Napier, Wellington and Marlborough. But it has also taken him round the world – to Australia, Mexico, North America, Japan, South-east Asia, Estonia and the Caribbean. For anyone wanting to see other examples of his work, go to: www.cinzah.com.
Cinzah likes his art to be close to the environment. He often expresses views about pressing environmental issues. His work explores mythology, story-telling and themes such as the inter-relationship between humans and nature. He has also made a film about street art, emphasising its value as a legitimate branch of art and counteracting the perception of street art as “just spray-painting”.
— Judith Doyle, Bay View newsletter 72, November 2018
