Discarded
Walking up Hosier Lane on probably the last warm day of the year, enjoying the location, admiring the callipygian women in their shorts and watching the people as much as the walls. A busker is playing a guitar; I haven’t seen that many buskers in Hosier Lane even though there always lots of people there.
A man drives his Harley Davidson up steep incline of the bluestone lane to photograph his hog in front of one of the walls. A seriously good looking motorcycle but not a serious photographer using his cell phone. It is always interesting to see how different people use this laneway in Melbourne, a reminder that there are many ways of living life.
unknown, Back in My Day, 2015
I also have an objective in Hosier Lane besides people watching. I am on a mission to collect more photographs of street art sculptures. There is a lot of it about, enough for another blog post. Not only because Will Coles has endowed Melbourne with many new works in a recent visit from his home in Sydney but because there are more street artists doing three dimensional work.
Fee-Rye, monster, 2014
unknown, Mr Flip Flop, 2015
I know about Discarded but I still don’t know about all the new artists, like the Flip Flop artist. Who is doing these great spray cans? GT
GT, Lunar Park Can, 2015
Will Coles has a lot of new work around Melbourne. His cast designer purse with the word ‘Fake’ and the designer handbag with the word ‘Consume’ in Hosier Lane are a big hit with the anti-fashionistas. His discarded shoe appears forgotten.
Will Coles, Fake, 2015
Will Coles, Consume, 2015
Will Coles, Forgot’n, 2015
I want to keep up with recent street art sculpture partially what I’ve written in the final chapter of my book, Melbourne’s Sculpture; that street art sculptures are the most recent type of public sculpture. This should not be confused with being the ultimate type of public sculpture, street art sculptures are not about to replace the established types of public sculpture. I also admire the tenacity and ingenuity of anyone who makes a durable sculpture and install it in the street with or without permission.
For more street art sculpture:
10 Great Street Installation 2014
April 6th, 2015 at 1:28 PM
Thanks for posting about these, very interesting. It’s amazing, as you say, that artists are taking the time to craft these pieces, just to put them out in the public with no real return on effort or guarantee of how long they will last. Personally I’m always really grateful that they share their work with us in this way.
April 6th, 2015 at 2:21 PM
You’re welcome. Yes, it amazing effort, not sure that it is always worth it – I haven’t put up the worst attempts, I should do that sometime for balance. Enjoy your time in Japan – I appreciate the philosophy of “observing through writing”.
April 6th, 2015 at 6:36 PM
Thanks Mark. I’m hoping to get some pics of some street art over here, but it’s a bit elusive. Tokyo is such a ‘clean’ city by many standards (and that’s not to devalue street art in any way). I suspect that as a tourist I’m also not hanging out in the right places…
April 6th, 2015 at 7:04 PM
Yes, being in a strange city is not the easiest way to find street art. Melbourne makes it so easy for tourists with Hosier Lane an easy walk from Flinders Street.