australian post 5 - taking street art to a new level

melbourne is known as the street art capital of the world (at least in melbourne!). it's not hard to see why. every inch of spare wall or garage door is sprayed, stencilled, tagged or stickered. there are some amazing large scale pieces, whole streets of colour, quirky messages and a lot of it is there one day and gone the next as something else takes its place. religion gets a bad rap as ever but i did spot jesus in disguise as a street artist! there are a few streets that are just entirely graffiti and the city council clearly have a policy of creating spaces for this art form. i have added a photo album melbourne street art to flickr. i did see one sole woman lovingly painting her wall white over graffiti but it was looking like an invitation...

at the nosh gathering in queenscliff there were a group from incedo in new zealand. incedo is nzyfc re-invented as a mission order. i really liked what they were up to... dave white, based in hamilton, is  running  a stations of the cross art project on a huge scale outside in the public gardens. he showed us some photos and talked about it. about 3500 visitors passed through the 2008 one. they gather each evening and journey round the stations in groups. the team have to assemble and take down the stations each day for the whole of holy week. mark pierson who i always think of as the person who inspired lots of groups to re-invent stations said that this is simply the best stations in the world. i think he's right. it clearly began on a smaller scale inside a church building, progressed to more public space in a theatre and now is outdoors - see the history. the photos and video give an idea of the scale and the size of the task involved. one station involved people holding an ice cube with a leaf shaped cross in it - this meant making 4000 of them in advance. another involved a guillotine, another creating a 9m light shade suspended over a pond and so on. it's run by a loose collective of artists who 'share meals, paint brushes and the zeitgeist of the resurrection'.

it is inspirational, it's in public space, it's creative and imaginative, it partners with local council and community groups, it's caught the public imagination and it invites people into the story. this is taking street art to a new level...

Comments

[geoff]

glad you liked melbourne and good to see you were able to wander around the alleys taking in the art.
this was one of my favorites when we were there last year:
http://flickr.com/photos/geoffandsherry/2578708911/
peace to you,
geoff

[jonny]

loved melbourne! nice pic cheers...