For more than two years, a mural on Ashburton’s tallest building has been on display, sporting all the trademark features of Kiwi artist Hayley King - who goes by the name Flox.
But Hayley told Fair Go she wasn't paid for that work and worse yet, it's a low-quality replica of what she would have delivered.
In 2020, the stencil artist was asked by the Christchurch company RM Designs to create two original artworks to be hand-painted on a new four-storey building.
The job was estimated to cost around $30,000.
RM Designs was working on behalf of the Murney family, who own the building and are self-confessed fans of Flox.
Hayley teamed up with artist Ross Liew and went back and forth with RM Designs to produce a concept design that the Murneys were happy with. The artists charge $1500 for that process.
“Should that image be liked by all parties, then we proceed beyond there,” explains Ross.
“$1500 gets us to the point of having an image to talk about”.
Ross says at that stage, the artists still owned the designs and that there was “no transfer of ownership, there's no licensing permission, there's no rights of reproduction”.
Yet that became a sticking point, when the artists realised they wouldn’t be able to carry out the original plan to hand paint the mural due to the job throwing up logistical challenges.
They went back to RM Designs with an alternative for $15,000 - half the price of the original quote.
“That was to create a really nice vector, high res file that was suitable for that size building that could be printed,” Hayley says.
The artists explained it would involve recreating the designs in a time-consuming manner.
RM Designs didn’t accept that quote and decided to settle on the $1500 concept fee.
The artists believed that was the end of that project. But 10 months later, Hayley heard from a Flox fan, who complimented her “piece in Ashburton”.
“I said, ‘oh! I don't think I have a piece in Ashburton, what do you mean?’ And she said, ‘oh no it's definitely yours,” Hayley says .
The artists asked RM Designs to explain. The company owner, Bernie O'Fagan, told them the low-res concept was sent onto a graphic artist and alterations were made.
Hayley says the resulting mural is a “terrible” reflection of her work and Flox brand.
The issue went back and forth between lawyers before the pair say they gave up. They didn't want money. They wanted the mural down.
O’Fagan told Fair Go he'd been put in a difficult position.
"I was working to a deadline and thought I was able to use and change the basic concept.
“It was the first time I had ever commissioned a mural like this, and I think I may have been a little naive going into it, or you can chalk it up to the stress of Covid lockdowns we were in the middle of as all this occurred, but I clearly misunderstood how the concept was able to be used."
A contract was never put in writing between the two parties but Hayley and Ross argue they made it clear in emails with Bernie that ownership of their work wouldn’t be transferred unless the vector file was purchased.
The Murney family, who ended up spending $150,000 on the murals for their building, didn't know there was a problem until Fair Go got involved.
"We wanted an uplifting piece that our whole community could enjoy. We engaged RM Designs to use their expertise to manage this process, including contracts. We were not involved in any of the negotiations with Flox."
They're now working directly with Hayley and Ross with the intention to replace the murals with an original Flox work.
“That would be the best possible outcome for us,” says Hayley.
O’Fagan says he'd still like to find a way to resolve things with the artists.
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