Mural-town Sheffield, Tasmania

Sheffield in Northern Tasmania is a great town for anyone to visit. The major tourist attraction is the murals  (Town of Murals) for which it is famous for. The town of just over a 1,000 people have held an annual international mural festival since 2003. There is a competition with a theme of which the nine finalists proudly display their artwork in the park. 

This is an interesting mural of work. The depressing mood of the painting is created using dull-grey and black colours. Then there is the shinning, bright, graffiti piece which draws the viewers attention. This mural is made interesting because its taken graffiti and put it in a positive position amongst the bleak urban landscape. Behind the built up society is a distant natural environment separated by an impenetrable concrete wall.   

This is a classic. The mural is titled "No Demands Land" spin-off of Van Dieman's Land (the name of the island prior to being called Tasmania). It really goes to show the relaxed nature of the Tasmanian lifestyle. 

 This is a graffiti wall in Sheffield. The legality of painting this wall is very unclear. There is no formal declaration by the Kentish council that it is a legal wall.

 The other icon of Sheffield is the incredible backdrop of Mt Roland (1234 meters) which sits South of the town.

Where have we come from?

I searched through the inter-web to try and find the oldest photo of graffiti. I found this from the Victorian State Library records. 

I came up with this pic of Box Hill from 1977. Graffiti has changed a lot since then. This photo shows graffiti as a dialogue between the writer and society. This wall faces the train line and would be seen by the passing train audience. The political graffiti is indicative of the time it was painted during a period of political awareness and progressive thoughts and ideas.