Registered Art – 2026

Life is a blank canvas.

This is also a blank canvas.

It will not stay that way for long

This installation is a visual story of harm reduction in Aotearoa — where it began, how it grew, and why it matters. Through banners, posters, images, and gentle light, KnowYourStuffNZ shares its journey from grassroots action to national movement.

Come wander the archive. Learn how drug checking started, why it exists, and how community knowledge can save lives. No lectures. No judgement. Just information, history, and a reminder that looking after each other is, and always has been, a work of heart.

Claycore Canopy by Groupwork is a large net made from more than 2000 balls of ‘light earth’: a mix of clay, hemp hurd and paper pulp more often used to make lightweight structural bricks, prefabricated wallboards, interior renders, and insulation. Popular building culture in Aotearoa after WWII has resigned Earthbuilding and natural building materials to a bucolic imaginary of hippies and hobbit-holes – Claycore Canopy recenters clay as a high performance, infinitely reusable and indefinitely maintainable building material suitable for many environments and applications. Claycore canopy was built by the hands and feet of a team of over 100 itinerant and intermittent collaborators.

Formed from reclaimed cloth, found objects, and paint, this work is both protest and prayer. It calls for the protection of oceans from mining, pollution, and loss, while honoring ancestors who anchor us. Silver spoons recall colonisation’s wounds, pearls and pāua glimmer as treasures fading, and holed stones invite the Patupaiarehe beneath the moon to guide us in defending the deep for generations to come.

Effigy's through the ages is back again, with another new block added to the ever-growing list of patchwork blocks that are the base for Quilt 2.0!

Three effigy's have been burned since the original quilts completion, is it time for a sequel yet? Nope, but were almost half-way there! The new patchwork blocks have all been created from upcycled, scrap and rescued materials, as well as a lot of patience (and a few machine needles)

Illumindala is a hand-drawn mandala, brought to life with the help of modern technology. This age old art form is reimagined into an illuminated spectacle which changes at the press of a button. Monochromatically beautiful during the day - but after dark is when it truly gets to show off its stunning vibrance.

Large moths to delight you

Pooop Art is an immersive installation featuring forty-five full-colour photographs taken inside the most democratic creative studio in New Zealand: the construction-site toilet. Captured between 2018 and 2024, these images showcase the spontaneous doodles, jokes, and questionable masterpieces left behind by anonymous men who clearly had a bit of time on their hands.

Instead of treating toilet graffiti as social commentary, Pooop Art celebrates its true spirit — playful, bizarre, collaborative, and occasionally profound (in a regrettable way). By reinstalling these photographs inside actual portaloos, the work returns each drawing to its natural habitat, offering viewers the rare chance to enjoy art exactly where it was born: in a tiny plastic room that smells like disinfectant and introspection.

The photographs are positioned along the ventilation edges to keep airflow intact and avoid sticking anything directly to the walls — because even art has boundaries.

Scattered across the Kiwiburn paddock, each portaloo becomes a miniature gallery. Visitors can pop in for the art, the toilet, or both. Either way, they’re invited into a familiar yet strangely delightful environment where humour and human creativity meet in their rawest form. Pooop Art proves that inspiration truly can strike anywhere — especially when you’re sitting down.

The Rain Forest - Just a beautiful experience. Come lay beneath and enjoy.

Shed Happens — UV Cicada Mural

A glow-active cicada painted on up-cycled safety glass

This work represents the feeling of arriving at the burn and stepping out of normal life, like shedding a skin. As light conditions change through the day and night, different colours and details become visible; it transforms under UV light into shifting greens, blues, and yellows.

Inspired by the feeling of arriving at Kiwiburn and shedding “default world” skin, this work celebrates transition, emergence, and the strange buzzing energy of the paddock. Gather a friend, illuminate a corner, and see what glows back. Because at Kiwiburn, shed happens.

Where do ideas come from?

Come meet Sunny the adventure dog. She has something to tell you.

A calm wholesome place to spend some down time at.

The best things happen at sunrise.

Twenty-two floating bamboo pyramids – one for each Kiwiburn event – defying gravity through tensegrity magic. Stacked, leaning, and suspended like impossible children's blocks, they sway gently in the wind. Each bamboo pole and string is nothing alone, but together they hold each other up, creating something greater than their parts. Just like us. Lie beneath them, pull a string, and watch the whole structure dance.

Throughout our development as individuals, society tells us what is right and wrong, how we should dress, eat, and even FEEL. Each day of the gathering, we will participate in workshops on various themes, such as exploring one of the most taboo emotions: PLEASURE. We will learn to feel pride and bravely express the joy of enjoying life, both individually and as a community. We will use circus and artistic disciplines such as pyrophagy, clowning, giant bubbles, Contact improvisation and acroyoga.

Step into the Garden of PLUR, a peaceful creative nook where festival-goers can paint, share, and discover rock art. Take a moment to relax, make something beautiful, and add your own touch to this ever-growing community garden

A solitary spiral invites you to slow down, step inward, and listen. The Heart’s Path is a meditative labyrinth designed for quiet reflection and intentional presence. As you walk its winding form, you’re invited to connect with your heart’s desires and set your course for the journey ahead. What awaits at the center is yours to discover.

“The Burdened Heart” is an interactive willow and tissue paper sculpture that invites participants to release emotional burdens. Burners are encouraged to write down something that no longer serves them – grief, pain, trauma, past relationships, or anything heavy on the heart – and place it inside the sculpture. Over the course of the festival, the heart fills with these personal offerings. At the final burn, the sculpture is set alight, symbolically transforming collective emotional weight into light and ash, creating a shared experience of release and renewal. Standing tall it will glow warmly and invite reflection, connection, and participation.

Event? Art piece? NOBODY KNOWS.

The Revolving Clothesline is an all-genders all-sizes event-long clothing swap. Bring clothes you don't want, and swap them for clothes that you DO want! Or just come by and check what we've got, and take what you want. It's open from 10am on Wednesday until 1.45pm on Monday.

One rule: NO DIRTY UNDIES. We don't want to have to deal with your groady skidmarks. Keep it clean, people.

Any leftovers will be donated to Aunty Dana's Op Shop in Newtown.

Ye Olde Boulder 2.0 is the bigger, bolder evolution of last year’s climbing wall, rebuilt, reimagined, and ready for all your vertical shenanigans. We’re bringing back the classic 30-degree overhang wall and adding a fresh 15-degree face, giving both power climbers and technique lovers a space to play.

Behind the wall you’ll find a little haven for training and chilling, including fingerboards, and hammocks for when you need to hang (literally or figuratively). Ye Olde Boulder is your friendly neighbourhood paddock climbing gym, ready to give you that glorious climbing buzz whenever the urge hits.