Street Art @ Brunswick

When the weather has been pleasant I have been riding my bicycle around and photographing street art in Brunswick. I saw a guy with a tattoo designed by Phibs on his calf, a permanent commitment to Phibs tribal inspired style. And it is not the first street art inspired tattoo that I have seen.

There are plenty of new pieces in the streets between Brunswick and Anstey stations. At Royal Nuts, the whole factory painted by people from Don’t Ban the Can with a nutty theme. If you want to see how good Melbourne legal street art can be, look around this small area, there are several fresh and outstanding walls. It is a demonstration by the people from Don’t Ban the Can as a protest about Victoria’s draconian anti-graffiti laws. So far they have been able to convince businesses and private citizens but not the local council or state government. Is there something wrong with Australian politics that it is easier to convince private enterprise than the politicians? Of course, private enterprise, like Royal Nuts are being rationally whereas the politicians are not and cannot.

I photographed this stencil work in Brunswick; it is a plagiarism of a work of Noel Counihan, Melbourne artist with connections to Brunswick. Many stencil artists are no more creative than the photocopiers that they use.

Street art sculpture doesn’t always work and this tree, that was hung with junk over the silly season, looks like rubbish after two weeks.

This rectified billboard poster advertising a carbonate beverage now simply advertises “Freedom”. I don’t know why advertisers pay to use this billboard by the Upfield line as it is repeatedly altered.