Blog Archives
Project Melbourne Underground
Never before has Melbourne‘s graff scene witnessed such an exhibition as the Project Melbourne Underground collection. Over 6 months in the making, this unprecedented graffiti bonanza encompasses 800 square metres of Burn City‘s finest talent: we‘re talking 90 artists over 3 levels of the Emerald House car park, at 105 York St. South Melbourne. Featuring our local kings of the culture Tres, Phibs, Deb, Awol, Lister, Drew Funk, Sofles, Maka, Adnate and the Everfresh massive, alongside international heavyweights Does, the ominous Banksy, Nash, Ces, and so many more. The emphasis is overwhelmingly on the graffiti (rather than ‘street art‘) scene; with epic letters on the make -straight from the streets and the fine art galleries that have defined this creative talent pool.
It‘s all happening at the Emerald House car park; with the venue open publicly as part of the South Melbourne Street Fair on Sunday 19th February -so get on down there and check it out!
Behold Solar Equation
Federation Square has a scale model of the Sun on show at the moment, by renowned Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The exhibit is titled Behold Solar Equation and is a simulation of the Sun, based on mathematical equations (of which you can participate in via the iPhone, for all the iPhone people). Regardless; I was there to check out the contrition that is the Banksy movie and here are some pictures of this exhibit that I found more entertaining than said film:
-Rock The Boat
Zevs
Somewhat like the Invader -whom we featured a few weeks back, Zevs (Schwarz Christophe Arhirre) is a French street artist that gained prominence during the late 90s in Paris.
He takes his moniker from the name of the commuter train ‘Zeus‘. Working with the aforementioned Invader and André; he helped pioneer the French street art scene. Initially targeting the walls of Montmartre with graffiti and ‘shadows’ of the Eiffel Tower, he was also notorious for hitting billboards -with throwies and also defacing and modifying the advertisements.
In the last 5 years, Zevs has moved forward in his approach to the fine arts; implementing new socio-political themes & techniques, including installation pieces. His works are highly sought after and works can cost in the range of $10,ooo. Zevs has recently established a series of productions named “Liquidated Logos” whereby he creates disfigured representations of corporate logos such as Coca-Cola, Chanel, Gucci, Playboy etc. This project comes immediately after his arrest last year in Hong Kong, which was a fitting end to his 7-year “Visual Kidnapping” campaign whereby he would remove, for example: a photo of a model from a huge billboard and demand a ransom to return the image.
He is currently part of the Lazarides artists group that includes greats such as Futura, Mode2, David Choe, Invader, 3D, Banksy, Jonathon Yeo, Reas and Faile.
It’s A Wonderful World
-Rock The Boat
The Space Invader
Little is known about the Invader, but his intricate tiles depicting characters from 8-bit video games (i.e. Space Invaders) have found their way onto common surfaces all over the world.
Particularly prevalent in the West; I have seen these works in cities including LA, New York, London, Berlin and Hong Kong. There is also a grab-bag of these characters right here in Melbourne. Below are some examples that I encountered last weekend. Having taken the time to investigate these local instances, I felt I would share this story with you.
The Invader is a French street artist that is around 40 years old. He began working casually during the nineties in his home town of Paris; before his tiled assault went epic in 1998. From trendhunter.com: “The locations chosen for the Space Invaders mosaic are not done at random; in fact, they contain a specific order and plan. In Montpellier, for instance, the artist planned out many different locations for his pieces so that when you look at a map, the points take the form of a giant Space Invader character.“
Henceforth, he began taking the artform abroad, reaching over 35 countries in total, taking in all the cities mentioned above; and more. Recently, he has hit the Hollywood sign twice and has achieved higher notoriety after his cousin Thierry Guetta (AKA Mr. Brainwash) teamed up with Banksy to produce the film Exit Through The Gift Shop, which premiered in San Francisco last week. Below are a few examples drawn from the Invader’s stints in Melbourne and a map from the Space Invader website showing the locations that have been hit...
-Rock The Boat
