Darcelle Nesser with her Peruvian-inspired bollard in George St. "What I love is that no one has any idea what I'm going to do next, because I don't." Photo / Judith Lacy
Darcelle Nesser with her Peruvian-inspired bollard in George St. "What I love is that no one has any idea what I'm going to do next, because I don't." Photo / Judith Lacy
Summer has lost its grip, but Darcelle Nesser’s summer street art project continues to shine brightly.
During sunny weekends, Nesser painted the 10 bollards at the rainbow crossing in Palmerston North’s George St.
The artworks were inspired by her study of ancient textiles of the world. Without providing context, she asked a friend to nominate 10 countries, and this helped direct what patterns she used.
She reached out to people from those countries to see if they had anything to share about textiles from their homeland.
Nesser also watched documentaries and talked to ancient textile authors.
The first bollard she painted, the one closest to Cyclista, is her favourite partly because it was her first, and partly because of the connections it brought.
Nesser didn’t know anyone from Peru, but remembered a friend had been there for one of his medical school electives. He put her in touch with one of his homestay hosts. She developed a convoluted network via a group chat with her friend and the Peruvian woman. The woman doesn’t speak English, so Nesser used Google Translate to communicate.
“If I wasn’t doing street art, there’s no way I would meet her or be able to talk to her or have any of this kind of thing.”
Ancient textiles gave her a start, but the designs were also influenced by conversations with passersby.
“That way, it creates this community effort. It’s not just me putting in art - it’s also Palmerston North adding to the art and also the rest of the planet too, little bits at a time.”
Nesser estimates she talked to about 50 passersby each day. As conservations developed, so did the artworks.
“The best part of the fun is that I also have no idea what I’m going to end up with. So people ask me, ‘What are you doing?’, and I’m like, ‘I actually don’t know, I’m making it up as I go’.”
Some of Darcelle Nesser's textile-inspired bollards in George St. "It's been one big long history lesson for me." Photos / Judith Lacy
Even for half a second, it is nice to distract people with art, the radiation therapist says.
Nesser wanted to make each bollard as bright as possible.
“It’s something that brightens us up, and if I can find a way to connect people, I will do that. And it brought so many smiles to people’s faces, and children love talking about it.”
Number three′s Celtic pattern is inspired by the Agris Helmet, a ceremonial Celtic helmet from about 350BC that was found in a cave near Agris, France in 1981.
Number six - outside Bruce McKenzie Booksellers - represents Vietnam, and number nine represents Japan.
She does not want to reveal the origins of all the designs, but it is one civilization for each bollard.
“I’d like to keep half of it a mystery because I want to keep people guessing. I want to remind people that these patterns have crossed civilizations back and forth, countries, through the textile trades and everything. So if you try to pin it to one country, that’s not actually historically accurate.”
Nesser loves hearing people’s interpretations of the paintings.
“It teaches me that everyone comes to look at something with their own story, too.”
By creating art on the streets we walk on, Nesser says her paintings brought back the history of the art of what we used to wear.
Last summer, Nesser painted the 10 bollards outside Harvey Norman, also in George St.
She views her work as a donation to the community.
