Perth Street Art - 1 (Perth WA)

In our contemporary world, Art has become a Mass product, another commodity that needs to be sold and marketed, usually by middlemen, not the artists themselves, and bought by people who buy Art as it was a Gucci bag or an Alfa-Romeo -as a sign of status- or as an investment, in the best case as a whim.  Artists have to make a living out of their talent, but Art, the way I see it, the way I like it, is free in conception and genesis (no ties but you and your creative world) and gratis. In that regard, Street Art is what Art should be, especially when it is non-commissioned.

Perth Street Art is beautiful, colourful and very artistic. Our Street Art is not very subversive in its visual language as it moves around well-established formats and ways of expression. It is polished in forms and structure, rarely dirty, and it reflects the artistic tendencies in vogue among paper illustrators and comic book illustrators, just expressed on big walls. Our Street Art is not subversive in its message either, and it is more an artistic individual expression than a political or social way of protest. We are not San Francisco or New York, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Granada, or Barcelona, Melaka or Kuala Lumpur. Our street art is a reflection of what this country and this city is. We do not have the same culture, the same problems, issues, or lifestyle of those cities, our street art, per force, is going to be different.

There are a few regular artists who have left and leave their imprint on the walls of the city, with a cult following fan-base: Creepy, Stormie Mills, Rough, TwoOne, Beastman, Numskull, Robert Jenkins, Yok, Kid Zoom, Ryan Boserio, Daek, Hurben, Timothy Rollin, blackgreyviolet, Jeto, ROA, among others, which are talented artists painting on wall but exhibited authors too.  Some of them are locals, some others are visitors from the eastern states or from overseas.
 

There is a great deal of commissioned street art in Perth, mostly sponsored by government, city councils and Universities. However, non-commissioned pieces are spread in abandoned buildings, empty walls and public spaces throughout the city, some of them quite cute, artistic and even funny: murals, individual scenes, artistic tagging, simple tagging, stickers, and stencils can be found everywhere.

Business have also embraced Street Art as a way of cool, and they use themes and styles that suit the vibe, name or atmosphere of the place. It is a modern way of  patronage, of which Art History is full. On the other hand, movies have given an halo of funkiness and edge to street art, to the underground culture,  which is what many new places want to have because, well, Perth is not especially naughty for anything, but it is certainly becoming more edgy thanks to its Public Art. Examples can be found everywhere: The Flying Scotsman, Daily Planet, Lemon Lane, LTN - name it.

There are awesome murals in the Grand Theatre Lane, This Walk Talk and Wolf Lane (CBD), Street Art Gallery Building (Roe corner with Miligan St), Gold Lane (Off Rockeby St, Subiaco), various car parks and back streets in Northbridge and Highgate, some creative studios in North Perth an Northbridge, Collie St and Henderson St Mall (Fremantle), McGiver and Shenton Park's train Stations, Lemon Lane in Claremont, Williams Lane and LTN cafés walls. So many places all over Perth! Just open your eyes: Indoors, outdoors, on the roof, on the floor, on the wall, whatever, wherever, whenever.

I love illustration and magic worlds, I love comics and graphic arts, so I love Perth Street Art. What about graffiti?... 

  Two slideshows with commissioned and uncommissioned artwork

 

THE SECOND ONE