40 hour week

Graffiti sits in our peripheral vision. Often just behind us, above us or in front of us and yet we still don't see it. Through the clutter of traffic and the silence amongst noise is art scattered in precarious positions. This building just behind the Bank has become the perfect spot to paint. Long sweeping views downslope provides the pedestrian with a cinematic experience. Amongst the work is internationally famous, US based former couple Utah and Ether from their 2016 spray-cation. To beggars belief a series of old Bonez throw-ups from 70K crew potentially circa early 2000's.   

 

Panels running yesterday-Hurstbridge Line

 

Go down the drains

 

Welcome to St Kilda

At the end of the tram line lies St Kilda. There sits a cultural hub of arts including iconic venues Luna Park, the Palais, the Epsy and is even home to Australia's largest free music festival. It provides an alternative culture like everywhere else in the inner-suburbs being consumed by gentrification. Here we find a rich deep history of graffiti that appears scattered through the streets. Despite the lack of train line and station St Kilda is a hub of graffiti and street art. 

 

Oakleigh-thows

 

Out and about in Dandenong South

Graffiti is a product of its environment. Where it appears and disappears is relative to public and corporate sentiment. Industrial walls are the backbone of the graffiti scene. Usually scattered in middle and outer suburbs of most cities adjacent to a reserve or a creek. These walls mark the edge of land that defines productive and unutilised lands. In the middle this dead space exists. Here we find the concrete walls nestled and hidden in suburbia. It's one of the last acceptable spaces where graffiti can exist. Almost everywhere else it it battles and competes for space to some extent. Out of sight but not out of mind for the graffiti artist. 

Until you facilitate chill spaces to paint, expect tags and throw-ups to proliferate. Those are quick ways to get up in a society driven by the buff. That's why industrial back walls are essential to the scene. They provide time and space needed to produce burners. 

fresh pieces by SDM crew

Prix-AFP constantly redefining letterform with a unique abstract take. Some artists just flat out wash, rinse, repeat on style, Prix doesn't. Others push the boundaries. Always altering, adjusting, concocting new styles. The more stripped back and simple the harder it gets.

 

St Kilda junction

An entre serving of the St-Kilda junction walls before the main course blog post served later.

 

Backstreets of Brighton

Highway/Freeway graffiti in Melbourne is a relatively recent phenomenon. It kicked off across many arterial roads around 2010. Nowadays its full of tags, throw-up, elaborate pieces. The Eastern and Monash Freeways are plastered with graff. Drive west and the pieces are double storey stompers. The boundary is limitless (Sofles). Throw Pam the bird into the mix, who seemingly fly's around Melbourne and suddenly nothing is impossible and the limits shifts again. The level gets lifted and suddenly the whole scene is shaken up for a recalibration. Pam the bird is just mocking the city's ability to kid a lid on the graffiti scene. Painting The Westgate road signs and the Cheese-stick and everywhere else in-between. 

The train lines are central to the history and development of almost any graffiti scene world-wide. The freeway scene added this intersectionality with train lines. Crews have new territory to claim. Some Freeways follow train lines the classic being the Nepean Hwy and the Frankston & Sandringham line where you get the likes of crews like Criminally Insane. Alternatively The Eastern Fwy catches the Dandy/Pakenham, Belgrave and Glen Waverly lines. All of which have a long history of writers including the staunch and unwavering Kicking Some Ass and Midnight Rockers.  

Few flicks from Brighton. Good graffiti amongst the yuppified landscape.   

Fairfield-2016

 

Pam the bird

Pam the bird has acquired a larger than life status on the streets and rooftops across Melbourne. Appearing recently on The Project, Pam offers an anything is possible attitude. By painting unimaginable locations across Melbourne Pam has earnt respect traversing the graffiti sub-culture into the mainstream psyche. It must be mentioned there are many graffiti writers across Melbourne that have gained similar status for their achievements. Obviously those include but are not limited to writers Pork, Nost, Jetso/Peezor, Uzi, Heef, Gettinup, Golfa, RIP Sinch etc. 

The below photo shows Bradmill in Yarraville one of the last relics of the former working class suburb. As the traffic travels across the west gate bridge, city bound you are greeted at eye level with the graffiti saturated Bradmill. A former cotton textile factory that once operating from 1927 until its closure in 2006. This site has attracted visitors from far and wide to witness and paint one of the most notorious of Melbourne's abandoned buildings. *More on this in a later post. The best roof-top spots already taken, Pam shows respect by finding a new space amongst the clutter, capturing the roof. The competition to claim bigger, bolder and more outrageous spots is a long running story in the Melbourne graffiti scene. 70K graffiti crew from late 90's were likely the first to set the high bar for hard to reach locations (see below when Renks and Stan tagged every window of an abando in the CBD). They were prolific and painted heaven pieces higher than anyone else. Since then many artists have followed with people like Nost and Pork more recently bombing and piecing high-profile spots never painted before. The story continues, whilst Pam was caught, before long the next graffiti artist will emerge. Whilst a number of people have walked to the west-gate Pam is really one of the few that climbed it and left a mark despite every obstacle possible. Special mention to Uzi for his buffed tag is still legible on the middle pylon. Often just a simple outline the innocent bird appears across the city reaching new heights and flying free.  

 

 

The New York connection Claw, PMS crew

Claudia Gold better known as Claw graffiti artist from New York in the 1980's. She's one of world's most well-known graffiti writers with the iconic claw. Symbolising strength Claw started the PMS graffiti crew-stands for Power, Money, Sex or Painting Mad Spots etc. In counter-culture of graffiti Claw shows a strong presence in a male dominated sport. One of the early pioneering women alongside other artists of that era like Lady Pink. Both grew up on the ethos of painting trains, seen as the penultimate prized spot for getting up. Alongside other artists including Utah both Lady Pink and Claw appear in Girl Power a 2016 movie featuring women in graffiti in solidarity with artists across the world including Australia.  

Here Claw arrives in Melbourne for a solo show in regional Warrnambool exhibition until 16th of March 2025. 

As she's gained notoriety Claw has taken her art to become a fashion icon. Traversing the artworld from the streets into stores and producing artwork for many brands. Ironic that a brand she developed originally for the streets becomes the brand the businesses want to buy a piece of for their pie. For some in graffiti that's sell-out. For many, graffiti stays and lives on the streets and can't be bought or sold. But here Claw shows us, a path of natural evolution carved that works for her. Whether a story of selling out or success of making it, you be the judge. Regardless of your opinion, she undoubtedly left a mark and transformed and trailblazed a space for women in a hypermasculine scene.    

Fitzroy mural

When the New York trains were painted inside and out Lady Pink

The Tassie connection

Full Time Pork

The most productive of graffiti artists develop a sense of branding similar but different to advertising. This branding could potentially mean everything to the graffiti subculture and nothing to broader public. But some artists traverse this space. The most recent addition to capture the attention of the media was Pam the Bird. Simple yet effective long bird that has gradually appeared sprinkled across Melbourne usually at height and often in iconic places including the entry to the West Gate Bridge. 

Similarly Pork an artist from Auckland New Zealand has crossed the divide between the inconspicuous underworld of graffiti and the public mainstream. His style was public, legible, highly visible and is found throughout the city streets. Whilst Melbourne has seen many big name international artists from abroad like  Revok, 1UP crew, dynamic duo Utah and Ether, and many more. Pork was on another level literally and figuratively. He was able to do what all other visitors haven't and that's leave a cultural legacy on the Melbourne streets. This includes setting an even higher bar. Arguably some have reached bar but all of those people are locals. For Porke getting up is the objective with style taking a backseat. Many in the graffiti world have there own opinions but few can say that had a lasting impact on the Graffiti scene in Melbourne let alone the Southern Hemisphere as what Porke has done.       

Pork-All Those Shapes

@Pork 

Full Time Pork

A collection of artwork below