April 26, 2024

Looking back at Hosier Lane

By Mark Holsworth

In 1987, a building on Hosier Lane exploded due to a gas leak. A few years later, it had an artistic explosion of street art, eventually making it an internationally renowned tourist attraction for the city. (Its location, less than a block from Flinders Street Station, helped.) It is a limited but visually dense space that is exploited by large and small commercial interests.

Hosier Lane, Melbourne

Hosier Lane is sort of a free-for-all graffiti space in the centre of Melbourne (although some of its walls are somewhat curated). It was first colonised by street artists and then painted by graffiti writers and mural artists, making it one of the city’s must-see tourist attractions. However, it is now in its third decade, and for many years now, it has been in decline; this is part of the tale of the long tail end of street art in Melbourne. Adnate’s five-storey mural of an Indigenous child still hangs like a kitsch albatross above Hosier Lane — a sign of the beginning of the era of the mural.

Last time I was there, I saw a stencil of astronauts by a visiting street artist from Canberra, the great E.L.K. It was covered mainly by garbage spray paint when I saw it. There is the ebb and flow of the tides of tagging and no-school graffiti over this brightly coloured urban coral reef. There are still graffiti writers spraying their pieces on every visible vertical surface in the city, from the creeks converted to concrete drains to the factory walls of industrial estates. And someone will always step up to fill the walls of this now-famous lane. And some of these will follow Adnate to work in the mural market. There is still a market for murals as businesses and city councils try to add some attraction to the ugly suburbia they have inherited.

However, rather than the big pieces, I like to look for the little details in the laneway. The street artists work at a different scale, filling the smaller spaces. For example, Will Coles’s work has survived the longest in the lane. His ‘Fake’ Gucci purse, made of concrete, still sits lost on the window ledge covered in millimetres of acrylic paint from hundreds of cans.

As tour groups still visit the lane, it has become a billboard for political causes with no other means of support. Currently, that means there is a lot of feminist street art because the lane is a relatively safe place for women to put up work in daylight. However, other groups, from supporters of West Papua Independence to Chinese dissidents, have also used the surfaces of Hosier Lane.

Given a bit of rough math, the artists who first painted Hosier Lane would be in their fifties or sixties now. The lane’s future is dependent on school kids and recently promoted city administrators.

Hosier Lane Time Line

1989 Andy Mac started the City Lights Initiative with light boxes of photographs

2003 Banksy paints his parachuting rats

2010 Melbourne City Council workers destroyed Banksy parachuting rats

2013 Adrain Doyle paints all of Rutledge Lane blue for Empty Nursery Blue

2013 Completely repainted for All Your Walls, part of the NGV’s Melbourne Now

2014 Adnate mural added to the lane

2014 Keep Hosier Real campaign to stop building development around the lane

2018 Culture Kings puts a hole in the lane’s main wall

2020 Six masked people ‘Colour Bombed’ the lane with paint-filled fire extinguishers

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April 21, 2024

The “True” Story

By Mark Holsworth

Another fictional explanation for the unsolved theft of Picasso’s Femme au mouchoir (the Weeping Woman) from the NGV has been published – Framed – The “True” Story of the Theft of Picasso’s Weeping Woman (Brolga, 2024). It is the fourth novel that uses theft in its plot. The three other novels are Anson Cameron’s Stealing Picasso in 2009, Chris Womersley’s Cairo in 2013, and Gabrielle William’s The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and His Ex in 2016. There is little originality in Australian art crime fiction, with the same crimes turned into works of fiction again and again.

Pablo Picasso, Femme au mouchoir, 1938

This time, the novel is written by Stuart Rosson, which is significant because Peter Rosson (1954-2002) and his partner Margaret Casey were accused of the crime. They were cleared by police, along with many other suspects. Other artists have also been implicated in the crime without evidence. Fictional “true” stories are written by authors hoping to avoid dealing with messy facts and defamation laws. So maybe Rosson’s book has something for the insiders, the people who remember Melbourne’s bitchy art world of the early 1980s.

It is an unfortunate title, the same as the Marc Fennel documentary on the same subject. Fennel’s documentary also covers the false accusations against Rosson, but not the false accusation about another artist based solely on the after-dinner institutions of a prominent Melbourne gallery director that Patrick McCaughey writes about in his autobiography.

I haven’t read any of these novels as I’m not interested in people’s fantasies about the infamous theft. I am more interested in many of the other Australian art crimes I researched for my book, The Picasso Ransom. Of course, there is a chapter on the artnapping of the Weeping Woman, telling the true story of the theft and ransom demands as it progressed daily for two weeks until the painting was returned. But there are many other stories of art crimes in Australia, some as fantastic and ridiculous as that of the Weeping Woman. Another painting by Picasso was taken from the Queensland Art Gallery, the former chief magistrate of NSW was arrested for selling stolen paintings, an ordinary thief once stole what he thought was a Cezanne, and many more stories of art theft, forgery, vandalism and accusations of obscenity. 

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April 14, 2024

Whose side is the wall on?

By Mark Holsworth

Does this wall support the political statements it is making? And the more radical question: is this wall for or against people?

I thought of this question last night at the Collingwood Yards after the book launch of Sabina Andron’s Urban Surfaces, Graffiti and the Right to the City. At the launch, Andron tried to get people to think of questions to ask about a wall in the city.

As I left, I stopped at the wall to photograph a poster advertising her book. Someone had written “Free Palestine” in some white space on the poster. It was only then that I thought of my questions.

Not all walls are supporting, but almost all exterior walls are load-bearing. Walls support paint, graffiti, posters, and other materials that accumulate on their surface, just as canvas, wood, or paper might support other art.

Walls are used to exclude—who is in and out. Politically significant walls of separation, the Berlin Wall and Israel’s illegal wall in the occupied West Bank, are also famous sites for graffiti. The graffiti on these authoritarian walls points out that the more the wall is used to exclude, the less control there is of the other side. Ultimately, with both these walls, the wall builders created a surface that supported their opponent. This irony adds more quality to the work on these walls.

This is also true of graffiti on rail systems’ rolling stock and infrastructure. Melbourne’s public transport does not officially support graffiti; it works hard to prevent it, but it has provided many supports for it. Trains and the concrete sides of train tracks have been traditional supports for graffiti. Now, the pillars of the elevated railway tracks are used as surfaces for the urgent messages of radical graffiti and tagging. “Stolen Land”, “Genocide on your watch”, “Free Palestine”

State Premier Jacinta Allan would disagree with messages sprayed on the pillars, but she gave the city these new surfaces. The regular buffing of the pillars doesn’t discourage determined people from spreading a message to the hundreds of people who use the path for walking or cycling. The buffing discourages serious graffiti writers and street artists who don’t want their hard work removed, so none of the quality work associated with Melbourne’s street art exists on either side of the rail corridor pathway.

This is not a book review; I’ve only started reading Andron’s book. In chapter one, she is still laying the groundwork, explaining the semiotics of the city and how her approach differs in that she reads the signs rather than reading the space as a sign… Still, her idea of interrogating walls in the city is inspiring.

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April 5, 2024

Bruce Armstrong (1957 – 2024)

By Mark Holsworth

Bruce Armstrong is dead, but his sculptures will live on as symbols of Melbourne. They have become part of the city’s collective consciousness, physically present every day in people’s lives. Armstrong carved the bears, eagles, cats, and other beasts of our imaginations. His Eagle (Bunjil) unites Kulin, colonists and immigrants with an eagle drawing from the Jungian symbols in our collective unconscious.

Armstrong worked at a monumental scale. Two people hugging is monumental when Armstrong carved them. Even his small sculptures have a hieratic presence, suggesting they could exist at any scale.

My first memory of his sculptures was his two guardian beasts in front of the NGV’s arch. I remember walking past the huge carved logs and hearing some Aussie bloke ask his wife, “Do you reckon I could do this with a chainsaw?” Not wanting to say a discouraging word, I replied, “But will you?” Because it was Bruce Armstrong who did.

Bruce Armstrong, Two Persons Hugging, Footscray
Geoffery Barlett & Bruce Armstrong “Constellation”, 1997, wood and steel, detail
Bruce Armstrong, Untitled, 1986
Bruce Armstrong, Still Life (Mirror), 1994

2 Comments   |  tags: , | posted in Public Sculpture

April 3, 2024

Statue Wars 2024

By Mark Holsworth

I could see this coming when I wrote at the end of the chapter in my book on art and crime in Australia, The Picasso Ransom, about the vandalism of sculptures in the statue wars: “…it is likely the statue wars will continue in Australia for many more years. This chapter may look like a brief introduction.” When I wrote that only the statue of the bodysnatcher William Crowther had been removed by the local authorities in Hobart. But, from horizon scanning, I could see a storm coming. Even when I first wrote about the now-removed statue of John Batman in my book Sculptures of Melbourne, I could see the storm coming. In 1991, the far-sighted activist Gary Foley put the statue on trial for genocide and other crimes.

In the first three months of this year, multiple Captain Cook statues, two Queen Victoria statues, one John Batman memorial, and one Cook memorial were vandalised. Covered in red paint, cut down or knocked over by anti-colonial activists.

In January, the same masked vandals sprayed two monuments to Captain Cook, one to Queen Victoria and one to St Kilda foreshore and Fitzroy, with red paint. The Captain Cook statue in St. Kilda was cut down and sprayed with red paint, and the monument in Edinburgh Gardens (in Fitzroy) was knocked over and sprayed with paint but has since been removed by the local city council. In Randwick, NSW, a Captain Cook statue was sprayed with red paint.

The British colonial approach to naming is confusing and repetitious, exhibiting both insecurity and an abysmal imagination—the colonial repetition of the same names, the same heroes on multiple plinths. The repetition is another symbol of the assimilation into the empire. The actual location, Naarm and its history are covered up as the colonials live life on repeat.

In February, another Captain Cook statue was taken out at the ankles at Captain Cook’s cottage in Fitzroy Gardens (actually in Melbourne and not in Fitzroy). Also, a statue of Queen Victoria in Eastern Park, Geelong East, was knocked off its plinth; it was quickly restored. A Captain Cook statue in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs was also toppled in NSW.

In March, red paint was poured on the monument to John Batman in the Queen Victoria Market car park (a prestigious location). The freshly reinstated statue of Queen Victoria in Geelong East was knocked off its plinth for the second time in just over a fortnight. “The colony can fall” was painted on the plinth. In 2020,  I called for the orderly removal of this monument to find out Melbourne City Council’s response. They claim they are consulting with Batman descendants about its removal. These descendants appear to have a different attitude to Suzannah Henty, a sixth-generation descendant of James Henty, who colonised southeastern Victoria. She wants the statues of her ancestors destroyed. 

I have to emphasise the symbolic nature of all these acts of vandalism. It is symbolic in that they haven’t taken away the bronze to melt down for its scrap metal value, unlike the scrap metal thieves, who destroy more sculptures yearly than political activists. It only reminds me that police have rarely arrested anyone for stealing public sculpture, and when they do, it is because of a tip-off from a scrap metal buyer or because the thieves were drunk. Public sculpture gets stolen and melted down every year, but these only make local news. The police have still not caught the person who stole the bronze dog, Larry La Trobe, from Melbourne’s City Square in 1995. Vandalism of sculptures only generates a media frenzy when someone symbolically damages a conservative icon of colonial Australia.

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March 26, 2024

Free Palestine

By Mark Holsworth

A big guy delivered a parcel to me. On my flyscreen door is a small Palestinian flag with “Free Palestine” on it, which I’d saved after a rally. As he was about to leave, he turned to me and, with a halting voice, asked. “You support free Palestine?” Yes. “I am Palestinian. My relatives are in Gaza.” I’m so sorry… we were both about to cry and finding it hard to speak.

As I walk around this wicked city, searching for street art and beauty in this insanity, I ask myself, is all hope lost? And then I see a message written in large aerosol letters, a stencilled image, an act of resistance, however small and apparently futile, that gives hope and shows that we are not alone. Hundreds of messages supporting a free Palestine have been painted across Melbourne, and thousands of stickers have been slapped on poles and other surfaces in the city. Most are basic, simple messages, their urgency outweighing aesthetics. (As I predicted in a 2021 post, the underside of Melbourne’s Skyrail would be covered in graffiti.) 

Of course, in Hosier Lane, posters in support of Palestine were pasted up. There were also many stickers, painted pieces, and ceramic pieces about women’s rights. Hosier Lane remains a platform for political statements, a democracy wall for street artists. Walls that are viewed, photographed and shared both by locals and international tourists.

After my last visit to Hosier Lane (Wednesday, 20 March), Van Nishing and Marcus Arted painted a small mural in Hosier, urging Australia to stop selling weapons to Israel. (This is not veteran Socialist activist Van Nishing’s first pro-Palestine mural, and there is no reason to believe it will be his last.)

Melbourne’s street art always had a political edge to it. Still, with only the Greens and Lydia Thorpe calling for Australia to stop supporting the genocide in Gaza, so many people in Melbourne look unrepresented in parliament.

4 Comments | posted in Street Art & Graffiti

March 21, 2024

Play & Playgrounds

By Mark Holsworth

As I sat in the swing at Cambridge Park in Collingwood, making notes for a previous blog post, I never would have imagined it would be controversial. I sat in the swing because it was lunchtime, and there was nowhere else to sit in the small inner city park. It was also pleasant to swing gently back and forth; like a rocking chair or cradle, it is suitable for all ages. This post is about playgrounds, play, and relaxation and who is entitled to enjoy them. It is about playing in the urban environment; how is play designed for, and who is excluded?

The original swing at Cambridge Park

Public playgrounds, like public seating, are adjacent to public sculptures, as public sculptures are frequently used for one or both. Skateboard riders use Petrus Spronk’s Architectural Fragment. When I was a child, I climbed to the top of Peter Corlett’s Tarax Play Sculpture (for health and safety reasons, children aren’t allowed to do that now). Recently, I saw and climbed on Mike Hewson’s dangerous-looking sculpture/playground in Southbank.

Hewson’s playground, with its improvised and scattered appearance, looks like so many contemporary art exhibitions. It was also the least prescriptive of playgrounds; you have to work out if you want to use it rather than follow the dictates of a path. It was also less dangerous than it appeared; what looked like Southbank’s typical granite pavers were actually soft and rubbery. (Read Sanné Mestrom, Senior Lecturer, DECRA Fellow, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, on “This new ‘risky’ playground is a work of art – and a place for kids to escape their mollycoddling parents”)

Mike Hewson’s playground in Southbank

The Cambridge Park controversy was that the swing wasn’t a playground for just for little children. Now, the council is holding public consultations about options for adding traditional children’s playground equipment. I would have been unlikely to have sat in the swing if it was next to a four-way rocker or other children’s play equipment, for in our culture, children’s playgrounds exclude older single males and females.

“Will no one think of the children?!”

The online discourse about Cambridge Park exposes many prejudices, including those about who is allowed to play, what children need to play, and who can safely associate with children. These prejudices also affect the politics of public space. Considering demographic equality of access and declining birthrates, is the large amount of space dedicated to children’s playgrounds, particularly in small inner-city parks, currently justified?

There are anti-fun ideas in our culture that only permit children to play as part of a developmental aid to be cut off at a certain age. Should play be restricted to age? Why are they not given room to disport themselves? Should older children and adults only be allowed to exercise and play organised sports and games?

Thinking about the playgrounds in my area, little kids use public gym equipment as frequently as adults do. Next to the Coburg Senior Citizens Centre, there is exercise equipment for seniors, but it looks like a playground, only safer. I have previously written a blog post about the Wilson Avenue Urban Bouldering and noted how little kids found their own use for this adult play equipment.

They might be safe, controlled, and tested, but do playgrounds help kids’ culture, and are they more fun than a cardboard box or a ball?

Public exercise equipment for seniors in Coburg

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