Mandy Martin, Puritjarra 2, 2005. For further information on MANDY MARTIN, refer here: http://www.mandy-martin.com/
If there are diverse kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing place, then we need to learn to value the different ways each of us sees a single place that is significant, but differently so, for each perspective.
adrift on a sea of information at a time when the world's night is a destitute time. In the age of the world's night, the abyss of the world must be endured.
--Adelaide is home. Relaxation is Victor Harbor. I'm a frustrated photographer who has lost his way in life.I have trouble coping in the technological mode of being of our complex digital world.
What I found interesting about Melbourne's 19th century lanes within Hoodle's grid was how they had become interwoven with 20th century popular culture:
Gary Sauer-Thompson, AC/DC Lane, Melbourne, 2007
One of the most interesting was AC/DC Lane, which was just northwest from Federation Square. It was nothing special in terms of its visual street culture---there was no City Lights Project here, and the lane cannot be called funky, stylish, intimate, evocative, quirky and full of unexpected delights’ despite the existence of the Cherry Bar in the lane. But it has come to signify Melbourne rock and roll and gutter poems of excess.
AC/DC Lane cannot be marketed as a place of sophistication and culture which, when combined with others, combines to ‘make Melbourne a world class city’ and ‘truly a city that has it all’ --what is signified by Centre Plaza or Block Place. These signify European sophistication and urban character. If the 'Euro-look' signifies Melbourne as a European city’ that is capable of producing its own urban centre, then AC/DC lane is gritty working class otherness of signature sleaze, sweaty, dirty, and a rowdy partying to the death.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, AC/DC Lane, Melbourne, 2007
Yet the laneway has become an object for the national and international tourist’s gaze: AC/DC’s international appeal enhances Melbourne's claim to be a global city. As Pamie Fung argues in The seduction of the laneways: making Melbourne a ‘world city’:
City identities are therefore increasingly made appealing through marketable images of place, in which the culture and the arts thrive as businesses dedicated to leisure and consumption. As Zukin states ‘culture is more and more the business of cities – the basis of their tourist attractions and their unique competitive edge’. Governments need to attract what has variously been termed as ‘footloose capital’... ‘flexible capital’... or ‘transcendental capital’ ... The laneways’ appeal is crafted and consumed within the context of international and inter-city competitions to attract and retain global professionals.
It's along way from ACDC, who formed in Sydney in Sydney, Australia in 1973, are still going, have an image of being socially maladjusted and are concerned with sex and drink and rock & roll.
| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 1:43 PM | Permalink
Gary,
Melbourne's Euro-style laneways are being transformed with a particular target market in mind, young, upwardly mobile, professional, singles.The Fung article in Crossings from the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Queensland that you link to concludes thus:
... the lanes are becoming increasingly gentrified spaces of middle-class consumption, wherein the identity of the city and of its citizens are framed by such aspirations. Melbourne has been described as a city ‘on the move’, as the ‘world’s most liveable city’ and as the ‘culture capital’ of Australia. Examples used here illustrate the ways in which the seductive imagery of the laneways has been harnessed to such popular statements and to wider economic imperatives to attract global investments. As a form of symbolic capital, the laneways are both experienced and crafted as places of possibility, where the desires of the individual for themselves and for the city – what they ‘could be’ and ‘might be’ – are played out. The seductive image of Melbourne’s lanes continues to be developed as the epitome of urban sophistication, feeding and constructing desires for the transformation and distinction of the individual and the city.
Very interesting. I cannot say that AC/DC Lane provides a seductive image of urban sophistication.
I must admit to being a little disappointed in the art work on the walls. One would think that the fan base would make it more about the band. But I guess after the death of Bon Scott the band lost a lot of their Australia Tag. I am not sure where they are based now. The replacement lead singer is good but there was only one Bon Scott made and then they broke the mould.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=S9n_uLJdec0
Les,
I found the street art work was very disappointing, given that it was a rock'n'lane with an international profile. Apparently, the visual street culture and music culture don't mix all that much.
Les,
Thanks. I'll have a look. On AC/DC it looks as if their peak was Back in Black (1978)and Highway to Hell (1980). The music I've head indicates that they are no new musical ideas; we've heard the riff's before even if they are catchy; it is unassuming music; they never really stretch themselves musically;
As with all art, there are more misses than hits, and this is reflected on melbournes walls. Admittedly, the hits over the past year have diminished, possibly because the better artists have become commercially successful and are less inclined to risk the legal consequences of their artist and 'vandal' worlds colliding.
Still, we can't have it both ways. I would still prefer to accept the bad public art with the good, than have the concrete grey wash the authorities seem to prefer.
Yes ACDC seems stuck in the past. Their latest album Plug Me In is a best of album. I would prefer to here an acoustic album if I was going to have to listen to the same songs again. The Angel recently did that and it was ok. I guess there still is a world wide audience of true ADCD believers like http://ultimateacdc.blogspot.com/ and they are the ones that are buying tickets and their music.
Back to the clip. I remember I was in Perth at the time when they played on the back of the truck and was so excited I ran behind the truck just to watch. At the time they were basically unknown. Perhaps they did the truck thing in all the cities?
It was a great stunt though. Many years later Bjork did a single off the back of a truck and I think the Video won some awards.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lmUKzR9Kh-A
Kez,
fair points. There is a great difference in the work in Hosier Lane and AC/DC Lane. There is very little in the latter, and what is there is poor in terms of expressing a rock 'n roll culture given the international and iconic status of AC/DC Lane. I was just hoping for more given the importance of rock music in Melbourne.
I agree with you that the quality is dropping off, that what is there is not cared for, and that even poor work is better than the ugly walls.
It's hard to be enthusiastic about the lane when somewhere there's a major road NOT called Highway to Hell. It always makes me think "Laneway to Hell". I forget are there "No stopsigns, speed limits..."?
Yes I see your point. I think there is a place in the World called Hell. I remember seeing a sign pointing too it once. I guess there must be a shop there that sells sausage rolls too. I remember we all used to sing. " Its a long way to the shop If you wanna sausage roll"
Gary, a fair proportion of the artwork in the AC/DC Lane predates its name change (from Corporation Lane) a few years ago. Also, if you only went there during the day you might have missed the slightly more stylish Arthur's and Alley Bar, hidden down the far end. I think its unfair to say it doesn't have its hidden charms.
Russ,
fair enough. I don't know much about the history of the lane. I was pointed to it by two Melbournians on a lane walk. The material on the web was a bit thin--mostly about the name change.
My how that little town has changed