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September 16, 2007
I'm off to Melbourne for two days holiday early this morning. I'm planning to take some photographs in the CBD that pick up from where I left a week or so ago:
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Showgirl, CBD Melbourne, 2007
But I have some advice this time about what to look for in terms of street art in Melbourne. KeZ Majkut, a reader of junk for code, advises me that around Melbourne:
... the best places to photograph street art can be found around Hosier Lane (opposite fed square off Flinders St), Centre Place (off Flinders Lane, between Swanston and Elizabeth) and on Caledonian Lane (off Little Bourke, between Swanston and Elizabeth again). There's a little cafe down Caledonian Lane called St Jerome's where the hip young people hang out, so it's a good place to take photo's of people or just get a feel for the arts crowd. Much of the better street art around Melbourne is either by or inspired by the Everfresh studio.
I'm wanting to explore the work of the artists who endeavor to improve on the public perception of local space and help transform dingy back alleys into open art galleries. I'm also wondering if I can do some texture photographs---- little compositions in rust or pealing paint layers----as I wander along the back lanes viewing the world through a rectangle.
Update
The taxi was late and I missed the flight, so I am working in the Canberra Qantas Club until the latter flight at 10am:
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, 2007
Melbourne Graffiti has some images of the street art in Hosier Lane. It is a long way from the stupid messages scratched into the window of the 8:32am to Flinders Street, or the nonsensical scribble across the doorway that you pass in that alleyway on your morning walk to work in the CBD. This creative work, which is carefully crafted over hours and hours of design, cutting, and planning, gives rise to a street urban culture.
This street culture finds its expression in Melbourne Pixel magazine ---where it mixes with photography, fashion, music, webdesign, comics. An example.
Update
I'm in Melbourne and I wandered over to the Convention Centre with Suzanne who is attending an Aged and Community Care Conference:
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Melbourne Convention Centre, 2007
I realized that I had ended up at the door of the Victorian Police HQ. It demanded identification before entry. I recalled all the media stories about police corruption, took a photo and moved on:
Gary Sauer-Thompson, Victorian police HQ, 2007
At what point does modernist, corporate Melbourne start to embrace postmodernism? Or is it just Federation Square?
Update: 18 September
KeZ, who was in Melbourne on the weekend, writes that he:
Saw three youngsters get nabbed when someone dobbed them in to the police for painting one of the walls down Hosier Lane. Did you notice the application for the wall to be made legal for street art?
I would have thought that the walls of the back lanes were legal. These are famous, known through out the world. Yet the Melbourne Council is hostile to wall painting.
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Gary
I love Melbourne.I go over to shop.I see it as the cultural capital of Australia.