Frankston gentrified

Frankston has long held onto a reputation larger than life as a suburb of strugglers in the south-east. It's in period of transition. The Big Picture Festival established in 2018 has transformed the city streets. Where street and graffiti artists have chance to paint multistorey buildings in a attempt to revitalise the streetscape. However this comes at a cost. Graffiti usually pioneers the places that make street art socially and culturally acceptable whether it be Newtown in Sydney or Fitzroy in Melbourne or Hobart in Tasmania. A boom in street art is often followed by a squeeze in graffiti. Suddenly tours for street art pop up in Frankston where graffiti has long been ignored, misunderstood and left with neglected interest. Here we argue graffiti is under-valued and under-appreciated and often becomes victim to street art. In saying that many places where street art can flourish, graffiti rarely reaches. Murals that stand two to three stories high have Buckley's chance of seeing a lick of paint unless you live in Sao Paulo, Brazil where height is no limitation. 

The other aspect of change is development and proposed high rises in the Frankston CBD with waterfront views of Port Phillip Bay. What the residents have dubbed the Great Wall of Frankston. The approved high rises that will tower over the existing buildings will dominate and change the landscape. The Frankston Door Centre currently abandoned and in limbo before construction the site lays as a relict of a former era. These places become graffiti destinations. Just like the derelict art deco baths in Hobart or the Collingwood Silos years of inoccupation of this Frankston relict gives rise to art before gentrification inevitability swoops in. Over 14 years of accumulated graffiti history here. Go back through street view and you'll see.

An earlier version of Nost & Prix

Nufevah, active around Melbourne 2014ish

Click

Smug

Fresh from Hosier part 9.

Old school style Crime Wave and Show No Mercy. CW have made a significant comeback recently partly fueled by battle with rival crew GH. 

Loadz, I'm thinking maybe had a bad relationship experience recently?  

Something different to the standard graffiti at Hosier

Fresh. Ice cold style. 

9 to 5

Tired, and stressed look, (multiple bags around the eyes) consumed by the monotonous repetitive nature of life: birth, school, work, death. Nature is beautiful (flowers) and music is the key to sanity? Or music speaks louder than words?

Thought bubbles on Hosier Lane

Lush is one of those unique graffiti artists which is always pushing the conformity envelope open to new ideas and concepts. He often mocks himself through self-deprecating humor. Lushsux his blog on tumblr makes everyone question why does he suck and it deliberately generates attention, subconsciously. He has brought a lot of attention to the scene, which in itself is another blog post. I don't like a lot of his work and think in many ways he perpetuates an all to common misogynistic attitude amongst writers. The sexual objectification of woman in his work, is absoutely fucked up. As a a society we need to be continuously pushing gender equality.

http://lushsux.tumblr.com/

 Mocking the superficial social media world, where everyone needs to take a photo (selfie-wank) to somehow justify their existence in this increasingly homogenized world.

 Making fun of tourists that come to Hosier lane and who don't attempt to understand the culture and just see what is surface deep.

Insecurities of everyday citizens

OMG

The meaning of this work is open to interpretation. Is it street art taking a stab at the ego of graffiti writing? Is it a comment on the Generation Y and its obsession of social media? Is it just a genuine piece showing a young girl inspired by street art and wants to be a part of the culture?

Fresh is Best part 2.

Hosier Land, Melbourne

Street Art video

ABC report about Soren Solkaer, photographer documenting street and graffiti artists from around the world. This video interview speaks to one of the subjects stencil artist E.L.K. He's one of Australia's most famous stencil artists who has successfully managed to work on the streets but also on exhibitions for gallery's. His work is seen here in ACDC lane, Melbourne.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4192960.htm

Ballerina

Unknown artist?

Burnie's Creative Side

Just last year saw the demolition of an iconic abandoned building in Burnie. Nestled right next to the Bass Hwy, this building was a part of another era. It was abandoned for close to ten years and the Burnie Tourism Association wanted it demolished. This was the Burnie hub for street-art and graffiti until it was knocked down last year. Further information on http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/692823/burnie-eyesore-still-standing/

 Before

 After

 Roof of the Building

The wall that faced the Bass Hwy.

Abandoned (Tepid Baths), Hobart

Down on the Southern Island of Australia is the smallest state, Tasmania. Despite only 1/2 million people on this island and 200,000 of those in Hobart, the graffiti scene is well established.

Hobart Graffiti (Tepid Baths)

(Repost)

All city wheatpaster?

"Basics"-who knows who they are, but back in 2012 they smashed Melbourne. 

From Carlton to Knoxfield, then up to Ringwood and back to the city. Basics has predominantly exploited areas near train stations but also high density graf areas. They have an exclusive, unique, artistic style with the reoccurring frog like face and the light bulb. Different to most graffiti and some would consider it street art it often doesn't include a name attached. The size of the small images show a different humble attitude when compared with most graffitist's.    

 

Australia's Most Prolific and Notorious Stencil Artist

Regan Tamanui or Ha Ha as he is known, has been heavily involved in the Melbourne Graffiti scene. He has dedicated a significant amount of time to painting the streets. His works focuses on the power on mass media in Australian pop culture. Ha Ha features in 2005 film about Melbourne's Street Art, called "Rash" link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UovsPn4Dvg0.   

Ha Ha answers a series of questions about Graffiti and Melbourne.

Whats the difference between street art and graffiti?
Street art & graffiti are pretty much the same thing, all street art is, is a intellectual's term to legitimize graffiti so people & corporations can capitalise off it.

Ha Ha's iconic Ned Kelly a rebellious figure with anti-authority sentiment similar to a graffiti artist. 

What makes Melbourne a good city for graffiti?
Melbourne is a very creative city & the graffiti is very diverse & executed to a world class standard , its also embraced by the public as a major player in Melbourne culture, also the graf here is very clean in comparison to most cities on the planet.

Science fiction character

Should Melbourne have more legal walls to paint?
Yes there is not enough legal walls here, but the cool thing is that you can apply to paint walls in the CBD through the council its free you just have to full out a form & get permission from the owner

Ha Ha and his classic roller pieces often found along train lines

What made you want to paint on the streets?
I got into doing stencil from seeing other stencils on the streets mainly from 'Psalm', & activist anti war stencils , so I thought i'll try that.

For information on Ha Ha check out his website http://regantamanui.com/bio.html#

Street Art

A little a while ago in Melbourne, on the quiet yet active Blenders Lane this little piece of art emerged. A photo was published of it in Sunday The Age last year. Its thought out placement under the drain let the wheat inside grow. As quaint as it is, this draws attention to the lack of affordable housing in Melbourne the "Most Livable City"? 

Newtown, Sydney

Welcome to Newtown, Sydney. A culturally diverse inner-western suburb of Sydney. This is Sydney's equivalent of Melbourne's trendy Brunswick, Collingwood, Fitzroy region or vice versa. Its an interesting place and worth a visit. This like many other inner-city suburbs focuses more on street art rather than graffiti. The stickers have become important element in softening this urban landscape.   

 

Each sign is plastered with stickers. It appears the local council has supported it and even approved unusually small speed limit text on such a large sign. From these signs we can see a number of influential artists. 

• Stabs is probably from Melbourne and known for his intricate stencils
• Mini Graff, she is from New Zealand is now based in Sydney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHc-Dd9hz4k
• Above from California? Has traveled the world with his trademark arrows, his identity remains anonymous  
• Phibs from Sydney, paints with his own distinctive style see fish top photo

Link to Newtown Mini Doco on Graffiti and Street Art https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1a-20hCUhg