This afternoon I went on a very strange (well, to me at least) adventure. My friend Carroll from Sydney had flown down to Melbourne for a business meeting, and she brought her son Evan with her. Evan's just finished his year 12 high school exams, so the trip was a bit of a break for him. So while Carroll was stuck in meetings all day, I showed Evan around the downtown. What did Evan want to see while he was here? Well, apparently Melbourne is a bit famous for its graffiti (or street art, if you want to get picky). So off we went, looking for street art.Let me tell you, when you go into the visitor information centre here and tell them you're looking for places around the city to view heritage graffiti, you get really strange looks. :-) The first guy we dealt with was downright rude. I mean, what do I know about this stuff? The term "heritage graffiti" sounded good to me - but he instantly got on the defensive and informed us that graffiti was illegal (duh) and that we would get booked (arrested) for doing any. Like I would ever do graffiti. I just wanted to see some. (Grumble growl). Fortunately, the second lady we dealt with was much more helpful. This time I used the term "street art" instead of graffiti and she seemed to know exactly what we were looking for. So in a few minutes I had a map with a walking route plotted out, and Evan and I headed off to go exploring.
I spent more time down sketchy back alleys this afternoon than I ever would normally, but it was worthwhile. I must admit - I kinda like graffiti ART - such as the panel I've posted here. When done well, graffiti can bring meaning and character to the lost and forgotten places in our cityscapes. When traveling by train, I like looking at how the backs of buildings are often completely covered with graffiti - some of it very beautiful - and you'd never know it if you passed by those same buildings from the street side. Now having said that, I do NOT like how much "vandal" graffiti (for lack of a better term) there is around here. I've actually been meaning to complain about this for a while in my blog, but just hadn't gotten around to it.
Seems that the practice of "tagging" is huge here and just about every public place has graffiti on it. Evan was trying to explain to me that sometimes, these tags are an artist's practice sessions before they go on to do a full piece of art. I don't care. It's still vandalism and makes the city feel dirty somehow. I don't know if Melbourne has a gang problem like Toronto does, but all I can think about when I see these tags are the gang wars and turf fights of my hometown. If someone wants to graffiti the alleys and backs of buildings, go right ahead. But leave the bus stops, tram windows, garbage cans, and other public places clean, all right? At any rate, if you're interested in seeing more examples of Melbourne's back-alley graffiti, I've posted all my pics in my "Melbourne - Part Two" album.
After wandering through the alleys and lane ways for a couple of hours, Evan and I decided to go and check out some more 'formal' art at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. This turned out to be a small but funky (and free) museum on the far side of the Yarra River from the downtown core. The exhibits there consisted mostly of video installations - most of which (as usual) I didn't understand. However there were a few which I thought were really well done. In one, a man who was obviously stressed to the max with his car pounded his head repeatedly on the car's hood, screamed and yelled and punched the car - all of which was accompanied by an excellent, violent music score. Hard to describe but trust me it was good. I also really liked the installation titled "Doomed", where the artist had basically strung together all the disaster scenes from every disaster movie you can possibly think of into one long commentary about no matter how you look at things, the human race is doomed to destruction. Depressing, yes, but again, brilliantly done - especially the music. So once again I hoofed all over the city, but it was definitely an interesting day and has left me with much to think about.
Jen and I are off to go camping with a group of Girl Guides from Chiltern this weekend. This will include our first experience with the countryside trains, as it is a 3 1/2 hour train ride to the town of Chiltern - first thing tomorrow morning! We won't be getting back until quite late on Sunday - so you'll likely hear from me again on Monday morning (Australia time)...
