Playing the Excelsior last night gave me some pause to reflect on my experience joining this interesting group.

The Street Art of Newtown

Posted on Jun 01, 2010 - 07:08 AM

Posted on Jun 01, 2010 - 07:08 AM

There’s a new gallery in town, but they’re not serving canapés and glasses of Champagne. They’re open 24/7 and if you can brave the elements you can treat yourself and your eyes.

See the Photo Gallery Click Here.

Newtown

When I first moved to Newtown I loved it for its open, warts and all inner city vibe. Sure 3,000,000 imported drunk “bogans” make Saturday night like a day trip to Taronga Zoo but during the rest of the week it is an urban paradise. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogan).

Most of the cafes have art from local artists, or provide opportunities for music and you can even see suburban faces like that guy who wears the hat and plays trumpet.

There are a lot of different cultures and subcultures in Newtown , just ask the Goths eating Oporto Chicken Burgers on Sunday nights. There is also a strong DJ culture emanating from the Bank Hotel
all the way down Enmore Road to the trance scene at the Sly Fox.

Wheat Posting

Then I was on a flight back from Adelaide they were playing a doco about a guy called Shepard Fairey who came out of the skateboarding scene with the iconic “Obey Giant” poster series and later the Barak Obama “Hope” poster.  Originally a street artist his work was considered fresh and original and has made its way into campaigns for Bicardi, Saks of Fifth Avenue and a score of Album Covers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey http://obeygiant.com/headlines/obama).

I thought it was pretty interesting in that way that ‘it’s happening overseas’ and although I determined to check it out on the web, I didn’t expect to see examples popping up in my neighbourhood.  I think it’s called wheat posting because the glue used is a wheat based glue and the idea is to whack the art or series of art up as quickly as possible. Having said that, depending on location, it seems to stand up pretty well against the weather.

I first noticed the “Wheat-Posting” going on around Newtown around the time that Michael Jackson died. In the days after his death a series of iconic Jackson images appeared around Newtown and the surrounding streets. Each poster was accompanied in the same spot by several others of the same type. In 3 days the council scraped them off and a new series appeared the next day.

I really liked them. They weren’t destructive, the art was really good and they were one of the best comments on Jackson’s death as each poster reflected the successful times of his life.
Since then over the last year or so I have seen many others, none so topical and cool as the Jackson images though a lot of interesting art and I wonder who will emerge to do something cool, commercial or both with it.

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