Artist Jesse Jensen (Ares Artifex) heard that Sunnynook Community Association was looking for local artists to execute an artwork on the exterior of the community centre building, approached the association, and was drawn in to the largely unknown story of Leonard Cockayne, after whom one of the local streets is named.
Melissa Powell, one of the community association members, held the art portfolio and was keen to create a 5km art trail starting the Sunnynook bus station to create a feature with a uniquely Sunnynook identity. At the same time, residents of Cockayne Crescent were concerned at the verbal associations their street name created the illicit drug, and started to look into what the street was actually named for. And, felicitously, Brownyne Bound, manager of Sunnynook Community Cemtre, was keen to transform a bland white wall into something much more dramatic.
Cockayne Crescent has certainly had a “bad rap”, says Jesse, and some people were even suggesting a name change for the street. Melissa combined the idea of the art trail with creating a mural on a wall at the community centre as a way to engage people with the story of Leonard Cockayne, who the street is named after. She gave Jesse the research she had gathered on Leonard Cockayne, which included the surely-not-coincidental fact that Sunnynook had 17 streets named after plants – clearly someone in the Council as Sunnynook was developed was using Cockayne and his remarkable achievements as a botanist as inspiration for the street names. At this stage, no one knows exactly who was responsible, or why this occurred: Leonard Cockayne has no known links to the North Shore, or to Sunnynook.
Jesse did further research of his own. On a trip to Christchurch, where Cockayne spent much of his life, he visited the Leonard Cockayne memorial garden and gathered botanical samples to use in his design process.
To provide some context – Leonard Cockayne is widely regarded as New Zealand's greatest botanist and a founder of modern science in New Zealand. He was born in England in 1855 and as a solitary child, spent much time observing flora and fauna in the wood near his home, Thorpe House. At the age of 22 he left England for Australia, where he worked as a teacher and private tutor. He arrived in New Zealand in 1881. Once here, he taught botany in Otago and Greytown. In 1885, having an inheritance form his father, he was able to leave teaching and pursue his interest in botany. He travelled extensively around New Zealand (though not, apparently, to Auckland), and despite a lack of formal education, became the most prolific recorder of New Zealand botany, publishing hundreds of articles in New Zealand and overseas periodicals and newspapers, “all written in an eloquent and forceful style” according to Te Ara, the government history website. He held a number of prominent scientific positions, and remained committed to publicising the more popular and practical aspects of his work, giving public lectures and making many contributions to newspapers.*
In addition, says Melissa, Cockayne was a strong advocate for creating and saving environments people could visit, and was responsible, directly or indirectly, for the creation of a number of national parks.
Researching and getting inspired about creating a mural for the community that reflected Cockayne’s prodigious influence on scientific thought in New Zealand was one thing. Getting permission to paint the wall was quite another. Jesse says it took about nine months, “as it is painted on a Council wall which always makes thing complex”.
Tthe community association and Jesse were finally able to get the project under way in late November last year. He has spent more than 30 hours in total on the wall, making full use of his extensive (20 years) experience as a street artist to this project. A mural featuring Leonard Cockayne (nearing completion when Channel Magazine visited for photography) greets visitors to the centre at the entrance on Sunnynook Road as they arrive; he has yet to complete the mural on the reverse of this wall.
In this work, as in others he executes, Jesse uses spray paint, rollers and brushes. “I use a range of different types of paints,” he says, and on this project he even “intercepted some” from across the road as a local was taking “a bunch of stuff to the dump”.
For her part, Melissa says this is a prime example of how local volunteer activity can contribute to a vibrant community. The mural is the first artwork on the planned art trail and she is hopeful that another for the Keep New Zealand Beautiful campaign will be able to be created on one wall of the local Countdown supermarket. For anything like this to happen, she says “you need volunteers to help, and the community to step up. It would be great if the local community was fully representative of the increased ethnic diversity in Sunnynook”, and got involved in this project or others.
“Part of Kiwi society is volunteering,” she says. “You can make projects happen. Whatever your skills and talents, everyone has something to offer, whether it’s organising, or creating things. Just get involved!”
* More about Leonard Cockayne can be found on Te Ara: https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3c25/cockayne-leonard
