Street art is dead

Will Coles, the street art sculptor of cast concrete, was at the opening of This is Not a Toy Store’s new location on Lygon Street. He was handing out postcards with an Apocalypse Now meme: “I love the smell of street art in the morning. The smell, you know, that graff smell. Smells like … a fashionable investment opportunity.”

Coles reminded me that none of the street art sculptors I wrote about in my book Melbourne’s Sculptures is still working on Melbourne’s streets. Seven years after, where are they now? Coles is living in Spain. Mal Function is busy with his foundry. CDH is reproducing genetically similar life forms. GT Sewell was selling NFTs. And Junky Projects lives wild and free from this dirty old city.

And it is not as if a new generation has come along that has been so prolific over an extended period or as audacious. Golden head has yet to make an appearance for over a year. So please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think street art (not just street sculpture) in Melbourne is dead, or, instead, to employ a less morbid metaphor, street art is tailing off, markedly declining. Declaring an art movement dead is such a 20th Century thing when a progressive art theory meant the next movement would logically replace previous movements.

I can’t say I’m surprised. I could always hear the sound of cash registers ringing with street art. And both major politic parties in Australia have moved further to the right, militarising and persecuting dissenters and whistle-blowers. Like all love affairs, I’m just disappointed it didn’t go on for longer and had to end like this.

When I fell in love with street art, I saw a utopian aspect where art from the people and by the people decorated the city’s least attractive features. People are taking action to make their lives more meaningful. People who want to make art, to be something other than a consumer or a worker. Psy-ops for civilians, a form of free and public expression. A creative and joyful response to being alienated in an ever-changing city. A way of connecting place with identity. Propaganda by deed, encouraged more street art—a subversive counterforce against mainstream advertising.

Others saw it as a commercial opportunity for themselves, like promoting NFTs or some other product. Consider Time-Rone show (see Giles Fielke’s review in Memo https://memoreview.net/reviews/timerone-by-giles-fielke). Rone did not promote his exhibition at Flinders Street Station with the old-skool method of a blitz of new street art. No, he abandoned the street once the business objective is achieved.

Adrian Doyle writes almost entirely about the commercial opportunities of how “nu-muralism” has replaced street art (see the CBD News). https://www.cbdnews.com.au/nu-muralism/ There is little consideration of these murals’ aesthetics or content because they are conservative in both style and content, especially when compared to Melbourne’s murals from the late 20th century. Geoff Hogg’s Melbourne Central Station Mural http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/search/nattrust_result_detail/65289 is radical, especially compared to the kitsch sentimental ANZAC biscuit tin art and uncritical Australiana of “nu-muralism.”

Street art didn’t die under the gaze of academics, from street art festivals, or from being preserved in art collections. Nor was it killed by government regulations or policing. No, it largely poisoned itself, assisted by social media likes, to subvert a progressive vision. That said here is some recent street art from Melbourne.

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The Unofficial Sculpture Park

About a dozen contemporary, non-figurative site-specific assemblages, created from locally found material. Rusted metal springs blossom like a bouquet on top of another pile. A truck tire is supported by a log. A mobile of rusted metal hangs from the branch of a tree.

The unauthorised public sculpture park just off the Capital City Trail in Royal Park. The sculptures are large enough to see them from the train between Royal Park and Flemington Bridge on the Upfield Line. I’m not sure how many years, probably before the last two years of COVID lockdowns. A wide dirt path goes past the sculptures, people walking their dogs and enjoying the  spring sunshine.

Except for the path, the site is overgrown, strewn with building rubble, concrete, and granite ‘bluestone.’ Why is it here? Is it the location of the demolished building from who knows when? I look back 30 years in old Melways and can’t find anything marked. It is strange that this waste-ground is so close to the centre of Melbourne, DCM’s Melbourne Gateway “the cheese-stick” can be seen poking above the trees.

Two blue male superb fairy-wrens flit around. Something moves in the long grass. I wonder if I am in danger of stepping on a snake. I stamp my feet to send warning vibrations. Google maps notes that it is a “white skink habitat”; maybe all the rubble is their home.

It looks like it is all the work of one anonymous artist, someone with a background in contemporary art. Much effort has gone into these sculptures, both psychic and physical, as there is evidence of planning and heavy lifting. Notice that each of the three blocks piled into a column has been turned 45 degrees to the previous one. Carefully positioned blocks keep a rusted lid hanging on a concrete pillar.

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Is this a revival of the 1960s Italian art movement Arte Povera? There is the use of unprocessed “unartistic” materials and rejecting the usual sculpture techniques, aestheticising and commercialisation. The anonymous creator of this sculpture garden is doing all of that. However, unlike Arte Povera, there is no social criticism evident in the work.

Perhaps if these sculptures were in a garden or even an official sculpture park, I would critique them differently. Question their heroic architectural intentions or zombie formalism. I have some sympathy towards unauthorised public sculpture.

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Discarded in the street

A creature with wings cast from a dead bird, a drink-can and a cotton reel and ointment tube as peg-legs. These are the ghosts that haunt the urban landscape, hungry ghosts made from what we throw away. When I first saw Discarded’s low relief sculptures on the street I thought of the frottage work by my favourite Surrealist artist, Max Ernst, for like Ernst surreal creatures, Discarded’s creations are at once absurd, etherial and poetic. Urban textures and debris transformed into treasures.

Street art sculpture is uncommon, even in Melbourne there are less than half a dozen people practicing the art at any one time. Like Junky Projects, the Melbourne-based street-artist who assembles street art sculptures from rubbish found in the street, Discarded assembles her figures from discarded items that she picks up in the street. To this Discarded adds another step, casting and making ceramic copies that she glazes and returns to the street. The ceramic replicas are combined into figures and glued on poles, concrete edges and other pieces of urban infrastructure that are unusable to the muralists and graffiti writers.

Discarded is a professional ceramics artist working in Melbourne; not surprising given the  obvious skill her works exhibits in multiple areas of ceramics from casting to painting. Her own street art is inspired by the work of many other streets artists. “They put in their time and money and give it up for other people to see.”

Discarded’s figures don’t have an obvious meaning, they is open to interoperation. Discarded told me: “I’ve had many instances of my work being very misconstrued. The most alarming was a project I did a couple of years ago on telegraph poles which people thought was signals for people to steal their dogs for illegal dogfighting. So I try to make it a playful/serious, comment on our relationship with the earth.”

Discarded explains: “I sort of have a love/hate relationship with the art world, so it often really inspires me to go to see exhibitions and galleries (best ever experience was going to see the Biennale at Arsenale and being in Athens where street art is wall to wall). But I hate the way art is currently situated in our culture, where generally only what makes it to the gallery is valued. I think we have to remember that the current situation of our art culture is not a set thing, it’s constantly evolving and street art plays a big part in changing the way we view art and also how we can imagine it to be.” And I can only applaud this attitude.

Persistence is an important quality of a street artist: how long does their work last in the urban environment and how many years do they persist in putting things up in the street. Discarded’s work persist even under layers of aerosol paint. As an artist she has persisted more than most, five years so far, and although not prolific she keeps on assembling her creations.

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Before and after Discarded is painted over in Hosier Lane

Another important quality for any graffiti writer or street artist is exposure, how far across the city their work can be found. In this respect Discarded is limited and I have only seen her work in the city and along the Upfield train line. It is not as easy for a female street artist to work as it is for a male. So, just be glad that Discarded is still installing her art on Melbourne’s walls and keep your eyes open for her latest creations.

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(Thanks Discarded for the interview at a distance.)

Exploiting Hosier

I still have a look at Hosier Lane when I am in the city. After a decade of watching this dynamic laneway I am still confident that I will see something worth photographing and often something worth thinking about.

Unknown, skull moth, Hosier Lane

In the last decade Hosier Lane has changed a great from a notable location for street art in Melbourne to an international tourist attraction. A decade ago you might find that the laneway that you were the only person in the lane; now with both increases in tourism and homelessness that will never happen.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that people are still exploiting Hosier Lane. The concept of exploitation is little/very well understood in Australia because the basis of the Australia’s economy is exploiting minerals and land for mining and agricultural economy. It is almost a swear word in a country where a billionaire heiress believes that the description “heiress” is a “negative slur”. So let’s be clear: ‘exploitation’ is when you get something for nothing or at very little cost and you make a lot of money from it.

Hosier Lane earlier this week

Some of the photographers are exploiting the street art and graffiti for their own profit. Most are not, the amateurs, the tourists taking selfies and the students are not but when you have lighting and a model, it does looks very professional. The wedding photographers that use the location for free are certainly exploiting it.

Last year there was the issue of KIL Productions was exploiting the walls of Hosier to make money from brides and grooms who think it is romantic to have their message of love on the walls. KIL productions has been painting in Hosier Lane for many years and I have nothing against him for any of those pieces.

One of KIL’s non-exploitive pieces from 2017

Many urban artists have an entrepreneurial spirit, making money from their art where they can. However there is a vast difference between selling art (or conducting street art tours) and making money exploiting world famous walls that cost you nothing to use. Nobody would be complaining about a wall behind one of the bridal boutiques along Sydney Road in Brunswick; I might even be writing a post about wall and graffiti chic instead of this post. This is not a question of censorship people’s art but about inappropriate in a particular location.

Hosier Lane is no longer the best location to see the latest or best street art or graffiti, for years now it has become its own thing, exploiting its own reputation into the future.

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To see the freshest street art and graffiti your best bet would be to go for a walk, or bike ride, in the inner city suburbs. This is the first multi-panel, narrative, aerosol mural that I have seen; I don’t know who did it but kudos to them for painting in black and white.

Street Art Sculpture 9

This is my annual survey of street art sculptures, installations and other three dimensional unauthorised art in Melbourne.

Gigi

Tinky (?)

Junky Projects

Will Coles

Tinky, Gigi, Junky Projects and Will Coles all put new work up on the walls of Melbourne streets and lanes but what I have seen most of this year is the work of Discarded. I don’t know if this is because of fate or other factors but I have seen a lot of Discarded ceramic work on the street. Discarded’s work looks like the children of Max Ernst’s frottage and Junky Projects. Cast in ceramic from discarded objects that she finds on the street: paint brushes, tubes of ointment, toy cars, tire tread…

Discarded

Discarded

Discarded

Great to see Drasko, who is better known for his stencils, trying some low relief works. Classical style reliefs with added anachronistic elements like iPads and mobile phones. It is difficult to identify the artist behind these street art sculptures, even though I have seen a Drasko exhibition, I still required the brains trust of my social media network to identify his sculptural work. There is not a lot of room for a signature or ego on a piece of guerrilla public sculpture.

Drasko

Drasko

Another problem is that durable weather resistant materials are required for outdoor sculpture and before the twentieth century that meant stone or bronze. Now one solution to the problem of material for a street art sculpture comes from Rooster Terrible; we are in the bag age where all life is threatened by plastic.

Yarn bombing continues to create sculptural forms in the street. The best example that I saw this year was the installation at Uncle Dickey’s Free Library in Coburg. It is derivative but relevant.

Crisp

I don’t know, badly weathered

I don’t know, I hope that they are Indigenous

For more about street art sculptures see my earlier posts:

Street Art Sculpture 8 2017

Street Art Sculpture 7 2016

Street Art Sculpture 6 2015 

street art sculpture in the Whitechapel Area

Street Art Sculpture 5

10 Great Street Installation 2014

Street Art Sculpture III 2012

More Street Art Sculpture 2010

Street Art Sculpture 2009

Street Art Sculpture 8

Street art sculptures from the last twelve months and continuing my series of posts about street art sculptures and installations.

Street Art Sculpture 7 2016

Street Art Sculpture 6 2015 

street art sculpture in the Whitechapel Area

Street Art Sculpture 5 2015

10 Great Street Installation 2014

Street Art Sculpture III 2012

More Street Art Sculpture 2010

Street Art Sculpture 2009

Former Sydney-based sculptor Will Coles is now living in England; Banksy’s home town of Bristol to be precise. In Bristol he has been taking on the topical issue of memorials to racists and slave traders.

Junky Projects also continues to put up his sculptures, along with leading street art tours, however, I want to concentrate on a some unknown and lesser known artists. It is good to see that Discarded has continued and has left this great ceramic piece in Brunswick, as well as, one the smallest pieces that I’ve ever seen.

Forget Hosier Lane, Presgrave Place is still the best place for the second year running to look for street art sculptures in Melbourne. Crisp did this high up on the main wall along with reviving stencils with Star Wars memes lower down. Adi’s attempt at creating a guerrilla gardening planter box died.

Adi

Crisp

 

Gigi has been making body parts with hair that are very disturbing in her own way. And the placement of this one is fantastic. They still work when covered in spray paint.

Visiting artist Mow left a few little doors and windows, part of a trend for tiny architecture in street art where many guys have been making models. There was even a miniature abandoned house chained up in Hosier Lane for a short time.

MOW, Presgrave Place

Mows, Melbourne

I also enjoyed seeing the work of Kai’s cast panels in the streets of New York this year.

Sandor Matos & Space

Sometimes it takes years for me to uncover a mystery. I first encountered Sandor Matos’s sculptures in Warburton Lane in 2009. I assumed that he was part of Melbourne’s street artist scene but no-one knew who did the work. Eventually, it was David Tenenbaum, the publisher of Melbourne Books who was able to put a name to the work. Still when I finally met Matos at his small exhibition, Archeology of Tomorrow at Studio 11 in Brunswick late in 2016 I was expecting someone younger and wilder, not a middle-aged Hungarian who works as stone conservator.

Sandor Matos sculpture with unknown paste-up in Warburton Lane 2009

The packing space series started when Matos had some artificial stone left over from a restoration job at Melbourne University, so he decided to put it to use. He was living in Warburton Lane at the time of the installation so transportation of the heavy sculptures was not a problem.

Studio 11 is a small white walled cubical at the front of this warehouse studio space that the artists, Joe Flynn and Joel Gailer are running. Joe Flynn raised up the roller doors and we looked at it from the street.

Sandor Matos turns negative space into positive sculptures. The use of found negative space as a sculptural area has been explored by several other sculptors, notably Rachael Whitebread in her House, winning the Turner Prize.

Cast from rectified readymade moulds found in the space between packing material. Matos rectifies the packing material slightly, enhancing the geometric compositions and removing any indication what it once contained or other symbols.

Matos has uncovered a mid-century modern style at the core of packaging. It is found in the negative spaces of styrofoam. That the modern style is preserved in packaging is hardly surprising given the connections between modernism and efficient design.

Sandor Matos at Studio 11 2016