Miniature artist rebuilding Christchurch's lost buildings

Christchurch artist Ghostcat is well known in Canterbury for his miniature model artwork. Now, he's working on a new project remembering some of the city's most famous buildings.

"These are re-builds of places that used to exist in Christchurch pre-earthquake. Places that I have picked that are kind of iconic to the community and people of Christchurch," Mike Beer (Ghostcat) said.

Each building is chosen carefully to connect with stories from the past.

"For me, I am all about nostalgia. I connect with places," he said.

Beer teamed up with the Christchurch City Council to create an "art trail" through the city.

"Parts of these builds will go up on the lampposts with a QR code, and then you can link to it and see what used to be there with information on the build, which is kind of cool and all ties in."

Currently, there are two locations with Beer's artwork on display: Tuam Street in the city and London Street in Lyttelton.

The aim is to complete 15 miniature models in time for his exhibition and book release at the end of next year.

"The book is being written by Rueben Woods, and the pictures are by Dave Richards, which is awesome," Beer said.

"I remember a lot of these places but not all of them. But I think anyone can resonate with something that meant something to them growing up, and this does that for me, and hopefully, it does that for people as well."

Beer is self-funding the entire project and hopes the Christchurch Art Gallery will host his exhibition next year.

While material costs are usually quite low, it takes time to finish each one.

"They can take anywhere from six to eight weeks to complete, depending on the intricacy of the build."

Beer has only been building miniature models for just over two years now.

"I was a carpenter back in England, but I was a very miserable carpenter because it is a horrible job, but it obviously gave me the skills to do something like this," he laughed.