Nathan Ingram on Signal-1, art licensing and seeing a public artwork take on a new life

Signal-1 began as a public artwork: a basketball half-court in Christchurch's CBD, commissioned by Christchurch City Council and brokered by Watch This Space.

Now, the artwork is appearing in a very different context. Hummingbird has selected Signal-1 for its limited-edition Re: Start pack as part of its It's Giving Art campaign, which looks back at the role of art and creativity in Christchurch's post-earthquake story and celebrates the contribution artists continue to make to the city.

For Nathan, the collaboration has opened up a new way of thinking about how an artwork can move between contexts. We caught up with him to talk about Signal-1, the licensing process and what happens when a large-scale public artwork becomes part of an everyday ritual.

Signal-1 started as a public artwork. What was the project and what were you trying to achieve with it?

Signal-1 is a public art installation in the form of a basketball half-court in Christchurch's CBD. The project was commissioned by Christchurch City Council and brokered by Watch This Space, with the aim of transforming an underutilised public space into something more engaging and visually striking.

By the time I was offered the project, I'd already completed a number of large-scale ground works, so I'd learnt quite a bit about working at that scale and dealing with the practical realities of installing artwork in public space.

For Signal-1, I wanted to push that further. I was interested in creating something that wasn't just a graphic applied to a basketball court, but a space that felt immersive and had a real visual impact when you were standing inside it.

Like a lot of my public work, Signal-1 is more colourful and geometric than my studio paintings, but the underlying ideas are consistent. I'm interested in the tension between spontaneity and control, and between deconstruction and reconstruction. I like having a framework or a system in place, but then allowing room for things to shift, respond and develop within it.

That flexibility was quite important with this project. The work had to function as a large-scale composition across a basketball court, so there was a lot of planning and control involved, but the design process also allowed the composition to be broken apart, reconfigured and rebuilt across the space.

When I first installed the work, though, I really just saw it as another large public artwork. I wasn't expecting it to go anywhere beyond that. I didn't really think that it would eventually end up on coffee packaging and reach an audience well beyond the physical site.

How did Hummingbird enter the picture?

Hummingbird were working with a design agency who approached Watch This Space after looking through their website for potential artworks for the project. I think what attracted them to Signal-1 was the graphic quality of the work. The composition could be scaled, cropped and adapted to different formats without losing the essence of the artwork.

When Watch This Space first contacted me, I assumed it was an open call and, to be honest, I initially thought I probably wasn't interested in putting a proposal together. I was quickly corrected. They had already done their homework and had selected my work. They wanted to see clearer images of a few different pieces for consideration.

That was pretty exciting, although at that stage I had no idea whether it would actually progress.

Hummingbird eventually came back saying they wanted to license the artwork for the campaign. They outlined the potential uses, which included packaging, takeaway cups, merchandise and marketing, and then asked me to provide a price range.

I'd licensed artwork before, but never for commercial use at that level, so I realised pretty quickly that I needed some advice. I got in touch with fellow artist Askew One, who is currently working with a large artist agency in the US. We'd worked together previously when Fiksate hosted his collaborative show Continuum with Jasmine Gonzales in 2020, so I knew he would be a good person to talk to.

His advice was incredibly helpful. He gave me a lot of insight into the licensing process, things to look out for and different ways I could approach the agreement and usage of the artwork. That gave me a lot more confidence moving forward.

Once the nuts and bolts were agreed, the creative process was actually pretty straightforward. I supplied a few high-resolution images and the agency would send concepts through for review.

What I really enjoyed was how responsive they were to my ideas, suggestions and feedback. They were excellent communicators and genuinely wanted to make sure I was happy with how the artwork was being used across the campaign.

“It didn't feel like I'd simply handed over an artwork and walked away.”

That made the whole thing feel very respectful. It didn't feel like I'd simply handed over an artwork and walked away. There was a real dialogue around how the work could be translated into each application, which I really enjoyed. 

 

What was it like seeing Signal-1 translated from a large-scale public artwork into the Hummingbird packaging?

Seeing the artwork translated across all these different formats was really exciting. What I found interesting was seeing another designer work with the composition and decide which elements of the image were important to them. Things like the pink line and the diagonal section became really prominent in some of the applications.

It was cool to see how they took the artwork across all these different formats and surfaces. Each application felt like it had been designed specifically for that purpose, rather than simply having the artwork placed onto it.

“I honestly couldn't believe how versatile the original composition had become.”

I honestly couldn't believe how versatile the original composition had become. It made me look at the work differently too. I'd created Signal-1 as a large-scale composition for a basketball court, but seeing it broken down, cropped and reconstructed across different applications showed me how much potential was already contained within the original design.

Then seeing the actual pack on the supermarket shelf was a completely different experience.

I'd already seen the proposal iterations, colour swatches, design variations and digital renders of the pack in different settings, so I knew what it was going to look like. But seeing it physically, sitting there on a shelf, was pretty surreal.

I bought a pack and headed straight down to the basketball court. I photographed the pack in my hand with Signal-1 in the background and immediately sent the photos to my wife, my mum, Reuben from Watch This Space and Hummingbird's marketing team.

Then I took it home and put it on display in my living room. For now, it has almost become a little sculptural object in its own right.

I think there's something quite funny about that, but also quite nice. The artwork started as a public installation, then became a graphic that travelled across all these different objects, and now one of those objects is sitting in my home.

What did you learn from the experience, both creatively and professionally?

I learned a lot through the process, particularly around the legal and business side of licensing. There are a lot more details involved than I had initially realised, so getting good advice early on was really valuable.

I also learned that there was actually a lot more creative involvement in the process than I had expected, which was a really positive thing. The design agency were incredibly transparent and ran everything past me for sign-off. They were constantly checking that I was happy with how the artwork was being used, which made a big difference to the experience.

It hasn't really changed the way I make work, though. I'm still going to keep doing what I'm doing. If anything, I'm now more conscious of how the work might translate across different products, surfaces and scales.

I'd definitely like to explore that further. It would be interesting to see where this kind of collaboration can go and whether there are other brands, organisations or creative partners who might find an interesting way to work with the artwork.

Your studio work and public artworks can look quite different. What connects them for you?

Working in public space is definitely different from working in the studio, particularly with the ground artworks.

Once a public artwork has been designed and approved, there's very little room for spontaneity during the actual installation. I'm reproducing a large-scale artwork that has been presented to a client, so there's an expectation that the finished work will look like the approved proposal.

There are also a lot of practical considerations. The installation has to be carefully planned and executed, so the whole process becomes highly calculated, with a lot of order and organisation behind it.

The spontaneity really happens during the design phase. That's where I can deconstruct the image, shift elements around and find compositions through playful movement within the different forms.

So those ideas of spontaneity and control, and deconstruction and reconstruction, are still very much present in the public work. They're just expressed differently. The installation itself is highly controlled and planned, while the design process gives me the freedom to move things around and experiment before anything is committed to the ground.

In the studio, that relationship is much more fluid. I can allow spontaneity and control to shift throughout the making of a painting or sculpture, and I can respond to what is happening in the work as I go. With public art, I need a much more solid plan and strategy before I start.

I think that's actually one of the things I enjoy about moving between the two. They're different ways of working, but they're exploring some of the same ideas.

What does this project mean to you now, and where would you like to take this kind of collaboration next?

It's awesome to see my work recognised in a commercial setting, and that acknowledgement is really encouraging.

As a coffee drinker myself, I'm excited that the artwork is going to become part of people's everyday coffee rituals. There's something quite nice about a work that started as a public artwork in Christchurch ending up in people's homes and daily lives in a completely different way.

The experience has made me a lot more curious about how artwork can extend beyond its original context. I'm interested in seeing how visual language can translate across different environments, objects, surfaces and scales, and what's possible when that process involves a good creative collaboration.

I'm definitely open to having conversations with brands, organisations and creative partners who see a connection with the work. I'm interested in where those conversations might lead.

Explore Nathan's work

The movement between public space, studio practice and objects runs through Nathan's wider work too. Here are three different ways to follow that thread:

• Lost & Found — a layered-glass diptych that explores how a composition can be divided and brought together again.
• Pressure Drop – Pink — a wall-mounted sculpture whose form changes with the light and shadow around it.
• Vert — a print that carries Nathan's visual language into another format.