PUBLICATION - FORM Building a State of Creativity

PUBLICATION

PUBLIC:As part of FORM’s efforts to Build a State of Creativity, PUBLIC has its roots in the original Latin definition: ‘of the people; of or done for the state’. PUBLIC embraces diversity, prioritises community and aims for excellence. It confirms the principle that art is for everybody, and if done well, can be a catalyst for positively shaping our environments and public life.

Alexis Diaz, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor

2 3Publication | 2014 2014 | Publication

“Urban art is essential to the fabric and wellbeing of a city.”PUBLIC attendee

Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw


Mags Webster is a writer, poet and researcher. Born in England and seasoned in Australia, she is currently based in Hong Kong.

Powering a Virtuous Circle: Creativity as a Public Good

A serpent uncoils around the angles of a wall

more than five storeys high and over 20 metres

wide. On a neighbouring elevation, an owl-

headed creature, intricately patterned, extends

spindly limbs to the sky. Etched out in black and

white against a background red as Pilbara dust,

these figures are huge, elemental, mysterious;

contemporary totems of a cityscape, a

city psyche, even. Towering over one of

Perth’s busiest CBD roads, they are visible to

thousands of us, day after day. Commuters and

visitors, residents and workers, we will layer

our private interpretations on these figures.

However we react, we are unlikely to be

indifferent. This is public art at its strongest and

most vivid.

These artworks, courtesy of international

artists ROA (Belgium) and Phlegm (UK), adorn

the inner-city public housing development at

601 Wellington Street, a building that previously

would not have attracted a second glance,

let alone had a reason to shout ‘look at me’.

Before-and-after photographs testify to the

unmistakeable power of this transformation. By

whatever name this place was known before,

henceforward surely it will be identified by

these electrifying murals, for not only have

they put this building and its neighbourhood

on the map, they also have opened up the

chance for conversations to spark about city

living, community, and identity. Creativity

like this becomes a talking point, a reason for

people to interact.

There are now well over 30 new ‘talking

points’ over Perth and Fremantle, enabled by

cultural organisation FORM as part of its social

innovation program, appropriately named

‘PUBLIC.’ Around the city centre, paintings

have flared up in laneways, car parks, and

underpasses; on roller doors, corners, panels;

the fascia of buildings old and new. An ethereal

sea horse, seemingly constructed of ribbons

and twigs. Kangaroos in Schiaparelli pink.

Gigantic geometric patterns, rearranging the

city topography into a series of beguiling

trompe l’oeil. Faces, messages, impossible

beings spread in places that are cherished, or

places that seem neglected and overlooked.

Murray Street car park walls: paint-chipped and

peeling. Yet the scarred brickwork becomes

strangely beautiful and whole when framed

by the outstretched arms of two enigmatic

Stormie Mills figures, communing across its

textured surface.

How intently we look, when there is something

alluring to draw the eye. How much the familiar

surprises us, when we are asked to look at it

afresh, forgive the imperfections and pock-

marks we have trained ourselves to ignore, and

appreciate instead the audacity and generosity

of human creativity.

We are offered the heart of Perth, recast as an

outdoor gallery with exhibits by the world’s

top urban artists, both home grown and

international. Open all year round, accessible

to anyone. For free.

We are offered something precious, something

intangible which renews itself each time

we find a good reason to look around, look

deeper, and perceive how it feels to be here,

in Western Australia, right now. Creativity

is our conduit. These artworks are uplifting,

challenging, contemplative, playful, serious,

angry, benign, secretive, expansive. They

are introvert, extrovert. Being surrounded by

this evidence of human creativity, amplified

by scale and visibility, we are prompted

to renegotiate how we interact with our

surroundings, and with each other. On a

subliminal level we are compelled to consider

whether where—and importantly—how we

live makes us feel positive, compassionate

and confident; or negative, fearful and self-

absorbed. These artworks show us what and

who we are. ‘We’ is the operative word here.

‘We’ is about community: a collective made up

of individuals, sharing space, sharing resources,

and, if things are working well, honouring

plurality while sharing values.

Positive human interaction depends on

shared space and shared rituals, tolerance

for difference, willingness to help. Put simply,

people who feel good about their physical

and social environment tend to feel better

about themselves, and in turn are disposed

to act more benevolently towards others—

who may happen also to be part of their

environment. This dynamic can be scaled

up to embrace the size of a city, or down to

focus on a neighbourhood, or a single block

of apartments. The authors of an independent

study investigating wellbeing and resilience

of local communities1 concluded that ‘some

people can be happy anywhere. But most

people’s individual wellbeing is influenced by

the community in which they live.’

∞ (Infinitas), ROA, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor


Add creativity into this mix and you arrive at

the ethos driving FORM’s work over the past

decade—Creative Capital, Indigenous creative

development, cultural infrastructure, creative

place making—out of which PUBLIC is the

logical extension. Its self-declared intention

is to offer creativity ‘as a catalyst for public

good2, to promote culture as an avenue for

meaningful engagement, [to demonstrate how]

the arts can be used as a means of prototyping

new solutions across areas of public need.’

PUBLIC understands that ‘creativity happens

where difference meets and contact between

cultures is characterised by flux, stimulation,

plurality and diversity3.’ So as an agent of

public good, PUBLIC positions creativity as the

vital ingredient to bond hard infrastructure—

our physical environment—with the soft—

ourselves—enabling us in turn to create more

confident and fully-rounded communities.

Research suggests that participation in

creativity and culture also helps to promote

civic engagement. Scholars at the University of

Illinois have discovered that community-based

arts programs, due to their accessibility and

inclusiveness ‘lead to increased social cohesion,

improved intergenerational and interracial

communication, and enhanced sense of

community among dispersed individuals4.’

Furthermore, because such programs bring

people together for an extended period of

time: ‘they serve as natural venues in which

friendships, partnerships and cooperation can

develop. Such activities can also nurture local

democracy by encouraging people to become

more active citizens, teaching them valuable

community building skills, and helping them to

learn about complex political and social ideas.’

Over the next three to five years, FORM will

evolve PUBLIC exploring different areas of

1. The Young Foundation’s Taking the temperature of communities: the Wellbeing and Resilience Measure (WARM) 2010

2. A simplified economic definition of ‘public good’ states that nobody is excluded from consuming the ‘good(s)’ once it is produced, and that producing it for one person effectively means producing it for all. Public good is also defined as the wellbeing of or a benefit to society. ‘A Theory of the Theory of Public Goods’ by Randall G. Holcombe.

3. Influence and Attraction: Culture and the race for soft power in the 21st Century The British Council

4. Impact of the Arts on Individual Contributions to U.S Civil Society, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts

5. A term coined to describe place-making by Mike Lydon of Street Plans Collaborative

6. ‘Happiness and how to find it’ The Observer, 3 April 2011

7. ‘How can we encourage people to give time to their communities?’ The Guardian, 18 May 2010

community impact, in a quest to demonstrate

empirically how creativity is integral to

generating public good. Initially, the focus will

be on the 100 Hampton Road lodging house

in Fremantle where FORM and Foundation

Housing will curate artist residencies, artwork

interventions, common space upgrades, and

a tailored program of extensive resident and

broader community engagement. PUBLIC

will also be working with communities in the

Pilbara.

Although many activities have a focus on

transforming the built environment, this is not

‘artwash’. Painting murals on a social housing

project wall is not an attempt to prettify things

or offer an inauthentic facade. Street art alone

won’t solve entrenched problems. But by

employing this form of tactical urbanism5,

blending the hard with the soft, it’s possible to

create a meaningful way of showing that the

public realm is fundamental to building social

and creative capital for Western Australia. It’s

not just about the art houses, the theatres and

the concert halls. Creativity is in the streets, the

lanes, the walkways, the places we all use, all

the time.

It’s not just about how we design towns and

cities either. It’s about how we enliven our

public spaces, how we modify and remake

them in our own image. Being a democratic

activity that brings people together, and is

antiphonal—dependent upon a happening and

its response—creativity is one of the means

we can use to do this. Humans instinctively

use creativity to communicate. As social

innovation, creativity helps to shape local

identity; it brings out a distinctive voice

enabling people to tell important stories of

place. It starts the conversation, prompting

exchanges so that people explore culture and

identity as a collaborative act. ‘Audience’ turns

into ‘community,’ spectators into co-creators.

The emphasis shifts from ‘to’ to ‘with.’ As

Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of NESTA

UK, and visiting professor at Melbourne

University notes: ‘Social innovation thrives on

collaboration; on doing things with others,

rather than just to them or for them6.’ By

being inclusive, creativity can help to move

marginalised communities and individuals

from edge to centre, away from disadvantage

towards empowerment. Once residents

discover how they might be able to contribute

‘they are valued as assets. This helps people

move beyond the culture of dependency7’

observes Tris Dyson, co-founder and former

director of social action enterprise Spice, which

specialises in improvements to the social

housing sector.

By transforming the walls around Perth’s

city centre, PUBLIC has already started to

demonstrate visible outcomes. The less visible

outcomes, namely promoting understanding

and tolerance, lifting confidence and

improving quality of life and wellbeing—taking

down the metaphorical walls—will of course

take more time.

At 601 Wellington Street, ROA’s massive snake

is depicted in the act of eating its own tail.

The serpent is an ancient symbol, significant

to many cultures and ethnicities, and when

it is shown in this attitude, it suggests both

continuity and renewal. It is a fitting emblem

for what FORM hopes PUBLIC can inspire and

achieve: a dynamic, self-sustaining movement

that promotes strength and wholeness, which

can effortlessly embrace buildings, spaces,

hearts and minds.

Phlegm, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.



Often it seems the age-old notion of ‘public’

has become a taken for granted and somewhat

conflated concept. What is public? In Australia

it has tended to become synonymous with

government and institutions, or societal

supports provided to a passive audience by

government. There is some remnant of the

concept used to describe amenities or spaces

for open access, though sometimes these

now come with commercial if not regulatory

barriers. While the word is still relevant and

in common use, in some ways the fullness

of ‘public’ has been lost in our everyday

thinking. As we carve out our individual paths,

concerned with work, families and immediate

circles, personal pursuits, what does public

mean for us as individuals today? What does

it mean for us as a community?

In its original Latin definition, public refers

to “something ‘of the people; of or done for

the state’.

There is a more active and participatory

dimension to public that is not always evident

in our use of the word in contemporary

settings. This sense of the civic, the communal,

the collaborative, is a spirit which is remerging

as an important ideal for current generations,

who seem to be seeking new ways to engage,

reconnect and share space in our cities and on

the planet more thoughtfully.

Public

“I have always been a big fan of street art, however after experiencing PUBLIC it has really shown me how the marriage of art and urban architecture can bring people together and also showcase the local artistic talent as well as the international artists. It was a real privilege to witness and I hope it happens again next year.”Survey respondent

For FORM, this original definition recaptures

something in this shifting emphasis. PUBLIC, a

multi-year initiative of the organisation, seeks

to take up this renewal of public spirit and its

relevance for the ways we can collectively

reshape our spaces, places, communities

and legacy as inherently creative acts. It

also endeavours to explore what creativity

can bring to our communities, cities and

regions. How can this individual and collective

creativity become a positive engine for the

development of the potential of our places

and communities as well as individuals? What

public good can be generated when creativity

is employed?

PUBLIC aims to explore creativity as a catalyst

for generating public good – for the wellbeing

or benefit of society. Creativity and the arts

have their own inherent value, but PUBLIC

aims also to explore how creativity can benefit

the shaping of our places, the connectivity

and vibrancy of our communities, the skills

and confidence of our emerging talent, and

the living and social environments we share.

PUBLIC embraces diversity and prioritises

community, reasserting the principle that

if done well, art can catalyse change and

improve quality of life.

PUBLIC launched in April 2014 with Art in the

City, bringing more than 45 artists from around

the world joined with our local Australian

talent to transform more than 35 spaces or

walls around Perth into an urban canvas.

The resulting artistic gifts recast the city as

an enormous outdoor gallery. These murals

enliven public spaces and laneways across

two key axes of the city and Northbridge,

and invite audiences to see and engage with

their city through the artists’ lens. Many of the

artists were influenced by the histories, stories

or context of the city and its communities,

inspiring the works they produced. In turn,

over nine days from April 5 – 13, Perth’s

community was invited to witness the creative

process in action, with the creation of these

murals themselves a performative spectacle.

This celebration of urban, visual and digital

art across the city offers place activation of

a different nature. The artworks now remain

for Perth’s residents and visitors to enjoy, and

have become another layer of the storied

interactions that will continually shape the

fabric of our city.

Art in the Pilbara took selected artists on a

journey into Western Australia’s regions before

or following their city engagement, offering

an exploration of a traditionally urban artform

in the vast landscapes that characterise our

state, and shifting the boundaries between

street, public and land art. Leading Australian

artist Reko Rennie undertook mentoring with

Aboriginal youth to create artwork for South

Hedland, while Jetsonorama was inspired

in his works for PUBLIC by his time with an

Indigenous community in the Pilbara. ROA,

Ever, Pixel Pancho, Gaia, and Remed explored

the landscape and the region’s towns, inspiring

new works in these settings as well as bringing

those inspirations back to the city.

The work begun through PUBLIC: Art in

the City with key murals created in April at

Hampton Road to enhance social housing now

continues with the delivery of a structured

program combining resident engagement and

capacity building, community engagement,

and beautification of the building and

surrounding environment.

Now begins the next evolution of PUBLIC

toward 2015, as FORM seeks collaborators to

join us on this journey of creative exploration

to positively enhance Western Australia’s

communities and build a state of creativity.

Stay tuned for more to come...

Beastman and Vans the Omega, Perth, 2014. Photographer David Dare Parker.


“The City was transformed within a week and has some iconic works now that I am already seeing popping up in footage on television etc and will continue to do so. The artists involved couldn’t have done such great work without such great support and care! Feedback I received from businesses on the weekend of #public was that attendances were way up, queues to get into venues they hadn’t ever previously experienced, as well as operating at capacity for far longer than they’d ever done before. A summation is: love your work, love what you did, you changed our City for the better.” Stormie Mills

Stormie Mills speaking to Carmel School, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.


Artist Insight

Jordan Seiler

The cities of the world are great collective

negotiations, an unwritten pact between

individuals to organise vertically. The result

of these negotiations is what we call a city,

a concrete abstraction constantly changing

shape under the pressure of our collective

will. From the laws we choose to enact, to the

heights of our buildings and the widths of our

streets, every aspect of a city, both concrete

and conceptual, is there because of a complex

negotiation between individuals choosing to

interact within a confined space. It is the heat

of our bodies that built the world around us,

and the continued friction of our proximity,

that changes its form in both meaningful and

dramatic ways.

We surrender to this arrangement because

with this organisation comes efficiency,

economic potential, and the benefits of a

precise division of labour. The resulting

complexity of our culture, the endless

production of goods, and the constant

innovation that marks our species’ progress,

is our return for ascending stairs and waiting

for elevators to deliver us into the sky. For

this reason cities are growing fast, and the

percentage of our world population that lives

in them continues its march past the 50%

mark reached in 2008. Yet the benefits we

seek by stacking one atop the other are not

always equitably distributed. So we fight, exert

our will, and contest the very makeup of the

cities in which we live, in an effort to balance

the spoils that cities provide for us. It is this

constant negotiation that makes cities work

for all of us, but where do these negotiations

take place, where does our collective will find

its home and the change it desires?

From a bird’s eye perspective, cities can look

quite rigid, and to think of altering them seems

overwhelming at best. From afar, cities are a

collection of private spaces, towers inhabited

by, or whose use is dictated by, individuals.

As you get closer, those towers spread out,

descending to the ground the further away

they get from the centre, but they don’t

become less private. Things seem fixed, each

building serving a function, providing a home,

a service, a place to make or use the fruits of

individuals living in close proximity to one

another. No less important to the whole than

any other, these buildings are individual fixed

islands, the city an archipelago, with water

separating the vast network. To navigate these

waters is to leave the privacy of our islands

and enter the Public, our equal ground, and

the realm of our collective negotiations.

If the buildings that surround us are fixed and

their use predetermined by private agendas,

the public space that flows through them is

decidedly not. It is within the public, the water

between islands, or the space between uses,

that we harness the potential of cities and our

proximal organisation. In public we are equals,

and therefore the public is where the collective

negotiation that shapes our cities takes place.

It is with this understanding that public space

has served our cities in moments of crisis. We

spill out from our towers and gather en masse

to declare our will, to stand against injustice,

and to apply the pressure that is needed when

change must come quickly and decisively.

Public space serves its purpose well when our

collective desires cannot be contained, when

our city must change to meet our collective

needs, but what purpose does public space

serve when the collective will is not focused,

when we are between such decisive moments?

It is with this thought in mind that we work as

public artists. Too often do the vast networks

between our buildings go underused, their

potential squandered as they become

common thoroughfares, the most direct route

between point A and B, between the home

and the post office. Used in this way, cities lose

much of their potential to serve our collective

needs. They idle as the friction between us

is mitigated by the small amount of time

we spend in close proximity. As a collection

of towers and private spaces our cities fail

to react to our needs, and the locus of our

collective negotiation is lost due simply to

the lack of our very presence. If cities seem

rigid, they are more so when public space sits

unused, or worse, acts only as a highway upon

which we shouldn’t stop.

As public artists, we can provide a reason to

gather again, an excuse to come closer to

the individuals that make up the city, and in

the process begin once more the constant

negotiation that is required as we organise

vertically. We are here to activate and invite

participation, promise everyone the water is

warm, and beg that they join us in celebration.

As public artists, our job is not to impose our

will, or use public space as a platform for

specific issues, but rather to provide a reason

to be in those spaces in which collective

negotiation can take place. If we do this, public

space contributes a vital role to the health

of our cities, giving a venue to our collective

voices, so that they may have a chance to

play off one another and begin the process of

negotiation that will spark the next dramatic

change, or even alter in some small way, how

we live together.

Jordan Seiler is an artist and activist who explores contemporary public space issues surrounding advertising and art by writing, making artwork, lecturing, organising, programming, and advocating for a more democratic use of our shared public spaces. Jordan participated as an artist in PUBLIC 2014.

In public we are equals, and therefore the public is where the collective negotiation that shapes our cities takes place.

Advertising One (large), Jordan Seiler + Heavy Projects, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Advertising One (large), Jordan Seiler + Heavy Projects, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Jordan Seiler, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.


Helen Carroll Fairhall is Curator of the Wesfarmers Collection.

Alive to the City

Art can transform the way we see ourselves:

challenging how we think and lead our lives;

inspiring us to respond with imagination, insight

and a spirit of adventure to an ever-changing

world.

In that spirit of adventure, PUBLIC asked us

to experience our city afresh. Seemingly

overnight, Perth’s buildings, streets and

hidden spaces came into new focus as people,

architecture and technology converged in the

creation of art across the very skin of the city.

As a community we were taken by surprise

by the ambition and sheer scale of the work

created for PUBLIC – produced predominantly

by a young set of artists from Australia and

overseas who live and breathe the city and

who have far-ranging ideas for how art can

and should occupy public spaces. Artists like

Melbourne-based Reko Rennie, who used the

opportunity presented by PUBLIC to claim

the city for nature and Indigenous Australia

with the installation Big Red in the foyer of

Wesfarmers House. At the launch of this

commissioned work for PUBLIC, Rennie talked

about the single-minded sense of purpose

and adventure that focuses him as an artist.

Born and raised a city boy, he uses the power

of the visual image in combination with the

scale and texture of the city to explore place,

power, land and culture. His description

of creative endeavour was simple and

compelling in its universality: he articulated

ideas about what it means to be an artist

dedicated to the democracy of the public

realm with a spirit and directness we could

all respond to. This is a dedication shared by

each of the artists in PUBLIC.

“Government and business can resource the kind of investment that can grow dynamic cities that draw to themselves both creative and economic energy.”

“Getting involved by providing our walls for public art is a way to help make Perth a dynamic, vibrant city that is a great place to live and work.”Duncan Mackay, Department of Housing, Government of Western Australia8

All cities need a festival like PUBLIC - to

galvanise public debate around what it

means to be a contemporary city and just

as importantly to provide us with the kind of

direct and unmediated interaction with art and

ideas that can infiltrate the spaces we live and

work in, or those that we simply pass through,

in new and compelling ways. Unexpected and

casual encounters with art through the formal

and the informal fabric of the city stretch our

thinking and broaden our world view.

When art and architecture engage in a

conversation between material, scale, light

and space, environments are created where

people feel both alive to the city and in turn,

enlivened by it. The wider societal benefits

are significant. Artists get the access to

commercial-scale projects that can take their

practice and their visibility to a new level.

Architects can work together with artists to

create public spaces that are truly distinctive,

that have personality, that are a pleasure to

inhabit and explore. Government and business

can resource the kind of investment that can

grow dynamic cities that draw to themselves

both creative and economic energy.

As a society we need to express a sense

of identity and a sense of place, because

these will provide us with an anchor in an

uncertain economic climate. Our artists and

creative forces articulate the fears, the joys,

the triumphs and the challenges of life. We

gain so much when we open ourselves to new

conversations. Let our cities be the expression

of who we are and what we have to share.

Big Red, Reko Rennie, Wesfarmers building foyer, Perth, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist.


“I had never seen street art on the scale or with the quality that I saw during PUBLIC. I thought it was a great way of adding vibrancy to the city and creating a form of artistic expression that ordinary people could get involved with.”Survey respondent

PUBLIC Salon Exhibition, FORM Gallery, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.


During PUBLIC I have the opportunity to

watch Maya Hayuk in action on one of the

festival’s most prominent walls. I’d recently

returned from New York where I’d seen her

Bowery wall, an iconic and sought after site

that you must be invited to paint. Maya is the

only artist at this festival who has had this

honour, one that she shares with the iconic

Keith Haring. Maya stretches her body over

the side of a scissor lift. Despite the unsteady

looking platform she has no fear and is

soon rolling, pushing, smearing, dabbing,

splashing, dragging paint across the mammoth

site, pushing the material and herself to

the limit. Her gestures alternate between

being loose, and then controlled, paint drips

teasingly down the wall, or is disciplined into

rectangles and squares. These actions appear

to alternate between anxiety and courage,

freedom and constraint. Although it seems

to be an improvisational process, propelled

by Maya’s internal impulses, it’s clear there is

an overall vision for the artwork that she is

working towards. Maya is in control of the wall,

carefully attentive to details as she moves with

the curves and grooves of the wall. Passersby

watch her in awe, stopping to marvel at the

scale and height at which she is working.

Maya seems to be in a state of deep

concentration, psychically she is immersed

in the mural, tuned in, totally absorbed. Even

when she lowers herself to the ground to

have a break and contemplate her creation

she doesn’t talk with anyone. At first, I mistake

this for aloofness but I soon realise she is

keeping herself in a trance and through the

week she continues to put herself into this

focused, meditative state. After five days I

walk down the laneway and am confronted

with her absence. The equipment is gone

and I feel a sense of melancholy that the

process is finished; it’s been a real joy to

watch her working. The final artwork is a

masterful expressive abstraction that hums

a psychedelic song. It is a giant quilted

work with rectangles, and squares forming

the composition through which lines of

colour move sinuously and, on occasion,

push out into clusters of phallic shapes.

There is depth and an illusory quality to the

work so that it appears to transform and

multiply the more you look at it, pulsing with

energy and vibrating with movement- a

fantastical landscape with hills built from

triangles and squares, there seem to be

galactic space ships taking off from its edges,

yet the work also recalls the geometry

of weaving. It seems more gestural and

experimental than the Bowery Wall, with

a fierce emotional quality that is at once

rhythmic and discordant, a jazz riff that blends

together and creates something funky that

you can really vibe off. Although its magnitude

and boldness could be overwhelming, there

is an equilibrium which Maya’s maintained

with the space so that it feels as though the

painting belongs to the wall and vice versa.

It’s clear to see why she is one of the festival’s

most senior and important artists, evident in

the recognition she’s received with shows

at leading institutions such as The Hammer

Museum in Los Angeles. Her creative prowess

extends into studio and design practice –she

has made zines, stage sets, album covers

and collaborated with musicians like The

Beastie Boys, The Flaming Lips and M.I.A.

Maya is one of only three women participating

in a festival that has 45 artists. Whilst the

machismo, ‘boys club’ scene of street art

is deeply entrenched, the marginalisation

of women is not isolated to this culture;

the history of art reveals a similar bias. The

feminist art activists, the Guerilla Girls use facts

to expose this inequality, highlighting that

in art, pop culture and film there continues

to be systematic discrimination against

women. In ‘Advantages of Being a Woman

Artist’ they satirise a few of the ‘benefits’ of

being a woman in art as: Being included in

revised versions of art history; Not having to

undergo the embarrassment of being called

a genius; Being reassured that whatever

kind of art you make it will be labeled

feminine; Working without the pressure of

success8.’ Yet, as artists such as Maya Hayuk

demonstrated in PUBLIC, women can bring

it: Maya’s bold artwork is a clear statement

that the street also belongs to women.

___

8. Guerilla Girls, ‘Advantages of Being a Woman Artist’, 1989

Artist Profile

Maya HayukSharmila Wood, FORM Curator

Although its magnitude and boldness could be overwhelming, there is an equilibrium which Maya has maintained with the space so that it feels as though the painting belongs to the wall and vice versa.

Maya Hayuk, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Maya Hayuk, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean-Paul Horré.


Maya Hayuk, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean-Paul Horré.


The Narrow Passage, 2501, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean-Paul Horré.


100 Hampton Road Project

Curating Enhanced Living Environments

As part of the broader multi-year PUBLIC

initiative, FORM has developed the Hampton

Road Project to enhance the confidence and

wellbeing of disadvantaged people living in

social housing, while simultaneously improving

environments and perceptions of social

housing. The project, undertaken with the

support of BHP Billiton and in collaboration

with Foundation Housing and the Department

of Housing, launched in April alongside

PUBLIC: Art in the City with the creation of 4

world-class, large-scale murals.

The lodging house located in Fremantle,

Western Australia, provides much needed

affordable accommodation for 190 individuals

on welfare or low incomes. For many, the

lodging house is the first stable accommodation

after time spent in crisis or on the streets.

The project is driven by a desire to ‘curate

enriched living and social environments

that can empower people and enhance

communities.’ It is driven by the need to trial

alternative models of resident engagement,

enhance social connectivity, better connect

facilities to their local neighbourhoods, and

challenge the stigma associated with social

housing in the broader community. It is

addressing a need expressly articulated by

both the local community services sector and

residents of the lodging houses.

The installation of murals by international

artists 2501, Maya Hayuk, JAZ and national

artist Lucas Grogan, has not only visually

enhanced the building fabric and its outlook

into the neighbourhood, but has invited

interaction and engagement with residents and

neighbours alike.

These initial artworks lead the way into a

program of regular creative activities with

residents that will be rolling out over the

coming year, including a cooking and shared

lunch program with leading chef Sophie Budd,

artists-in-residence program featuring talent

such as Eva Fernandez, furniture workshops

with A Good Looking Man, mapping the

community through the residents’ lens,

collaborative projects to upgrade communal

areas, interior and exterior enhancements, and

much more.


Orozco is an early twentieth century

Mexican mural painter, his work is inspired

by socio-political ideas. He participated in a

government-sponsored mural project after

the Mexican Revolution, his art was politically

controversial and attempted to reinforce

cultural Indigenous significance, it reacted

against the previous oppression of the working

class. Mural Art has an inevitable, universal

power that passes on in its contemporary

form. Whether it is called Graffiti, Street

Art or Mural Art, all mediums create a new

visual language that stimulates the urban

environment and the dynamic evolution of

a place. An unpredictable or spontaneous

action can broaden people’s interaction with

the built environment. In contemporary life

where people are wired to their smartphones,

laptops, tablets, and other devices, directing

and choosing their own information, it’s

spellbinding to have a captivating accidental

encounter with artwork that you stumble upon

around a corner.

In April 2014 a group of international artists

arrived in Perth, Australia to participate in

PUBLIC, FORM’s first mural festival. Along with

Australian talent, they transformed once grey

spaces and numerous facades of multistorey

buildings into a vibrant and expressive urban

landscape. The murals reflect a spectrum of

inspirations and influences. Although each

artist has their own individual approach,

artistically, they are subject to the same

challenge: how to immerse and merge their

work in public space.

The artist Pixel Pancho argues that street

artists, by painting in the public space, create

their own audience. This is one of the defining

and enduring qualities of working in public

space, which exists independently from the

exclusivity of art institutions. Murals can

function as a signifier of the urban landscape.

Painting in the street implies interaction

between the artwork and people, provoking

them to engage, loosening their perceptions

and mind.

Another PUBLIC creative, the artist 2501,

observes a significant difference between

Traditional muralist and the New Muralist,

believing the latter adapts to changing

situations, forced to step out of their own

comfort zone. They travel globally to paint the

murals and must reconcile their individualistic

artistic practice with the new surrounding

context. This makes the new wave of Muralism

the ultimate intercultural and international

art movement. Street art is the reflection of a

globalised world.

‘Every mural addresses the socio-politic

climate of its situation, whether directly or

inadvertently’ (Gaia)

For most of the artists it was their first visit

to Australia, with the exception of ROA who

travelled to Western Australia for his solo show

‘Paradox’ at FORM in 2011. Arriving in Perth’s

CBD after a day in the air, they encountered

a booming city where development has not

stood still for the past decade. The landscape

is still bejeweled with the omnipresence of

construction cranes. The global recession did

not destroy Western Australia’s prosperity,

the mining industry flourished and Perth is a

modern day boomtown.

Despite this development, most of Perth’s

youth have migrated to Sydney, Melbourne

or New York. Although The New York Times

praised Perth as the place to be; ‘a hipster

heaven’10, several residents describe the city

as a bubble wrap society. These different

perceptions illustrate the city is a place of

contradictory tensions as it makes a fast

transition into a metropolis, there is a maturity

that is still being cultivated that has not yet

emerged. Perth is eager to enliven the CBD

and to build Northbridge as a downtown

which embodies its own identity. Each of

the artists absorbed the influences around

them, particularly attentive to contemporary

socio-political issues around Aboriginal land

ownership and migration to give context

to their murals. Street Artists and Muralists

intervene in the public space to create an idea

beyond representation. Art in public space is

likely synergised by context, but artists focus

on mental field prospection to create an idea

beyond the representation.

‘Street Art today is too multifarious and

international to be reduced to a single set

of strategies or one overriding agenda.’ 11

The artists in PUBLIC demonstrate and

represent a differentiated range of street artists.

Street Art can be considered as everything

creative that occurs on the streets, or as an

exclusively subversive ‘illegal’ art form. It

has been used as a communication tool to

give recognition and visibility to oppressed

groups. Street art has been generated from

the underground, but it has increasingly

resonated with the mainstream. Nonetheless,

Street Art and Graffiti continues as a subversive

movement around the world, and there will

always be artistic reaction on the streets

towards the establishment.

Most of the PUBLIC artists have practiced

graffiti before, although the PUBLIC festival

cannot be considered as a subversive forum.

PUBLIC is a mural project organised by FORM

illustrating that ‘Street Art’ nowadays, is serving

as a way to reinterpret and renew buildings

and neighbourhoods. Gaia referred to this

9. José Clemente Orozco, ‘The New World, New Races, and New Art’, In: Creative Art (New York,USA), Vol.4, 1929

10. www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/travel/catching-perths-wave-in-western-australia.html+ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/01/10/travel/2014-places-to-go.html?_r=0

11. Carlo McCormick, “The Writing on the Wall”, Art in the Streets ,Skira Rizzoli, 2011, p.24

12. Jeffrey Deitch, Subway Drawings, Art in the Streets, Skira Rizzoli-2011–p.100

13. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Mentor, New York, 1964 and The Medium is the Massage, Penguin Books, London, 1967.

Huizinga, Johan, Homo Ludens: Versuch einer Bestimmung des Spielelements der Kultur 1939, translated as Homo Ludens; a study of the play-element in culture, Beacon Press Boston, 1955.

Ann Van Hulle

The Electric Wave of Muralism

The highest, the most logical, the purest and strongest form of painting is the mural. It is, too, the most disinterested form, for it cannot be made a matter of private gain; it cannot be hidden away for the benefit of a certain privileged few. It is for the people.9Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949)

Ann Van Hulle (1980) is a Belgian researcher and curator. She graduated at the University of Ghent as a Master in the Arts. For the past five years she been travelling intensively beside ROA, the Belgian muralist who was part of PUBLIC.

topic “as a trend of creative place making or

re-visioning a space by changing the visual

nature of a neighbourhood with murals. This

then serves the city, its local residents and

also development interests simultaneously.”

City developers recognize the impact of the

visual environment that street art creates

and reach out to artists to paint in gentrifying

neighbourhoods. Although this trend is

apparent, many murals continue to be created

thanks to ‘civic endeavour’ rather than city

developers. Painting large scale murals requires

logistical efforts, organisation, wall licenses

and equipment such as cherry pickers which

are used to reach the top of the wall. The

international artists of PUBLIC are considered

as muralists, they paint big scale murals in the

street. Muralism is distinct from the ephemeral

nature of Street Art; it is often permanent and

can be transformed into a landmark of the city.

‘Because of the ephemeral nature of graffiti

the work survives sometimes only if it is

photographed’.12 (Jeffrey Deitch)

Malcolm McLuhan’s theory: ’the medium is the

message’13 , is illustrated through site specific

art. When Keith Haring made thousands

of chalk drawings in the New York subway

stations in the 1980s; the only remnants today

are pictures by his friend photographer Tseng

Kwon Chi who documented thousands of chalk

drawings in pictures. ‘Graffiti’ from the early

days depended on photography for its further

existence. The early iconic photo books about

Graffiti such as, Subway Art by Martha Cooper

and Henry Chalfant have been distributed

around the world. For ROA they became his first

contact with graffiti and encouraged him to

paint in the streets.

Today, social media has become a dominant

medium. If an artist paints in the streets,

passersby with smart phones instantly post

pictures online. Specialised blogs compete

for the first photograph ‘scoop’ to gain as

many followers as possible. The internet is

also the way artists connect with each other,

following each other’s work, sharing art on

web platforms, often then travelling to visit

each other’s cities. The internet has enabled a

global village to emerge driven by a public with

an appetite to consume the imagery of street

art. Through digital media, street art connects

with people all over the world, because of its

public nature and easy access. As digital and

physical worlds converge, most of the PUBLIC

participants meet on the international street

art circuit, at the fast growing range of mural

festivals around the globe: in Puerto Rico,

Italy, the USA, South-Africa, Norway, Canada,

Gambia, Mexico. The internet is an electric

current that connects new talent around the

world, like a digital virus, urban murals go

virtual.

Homo Ludens

Dutch historian Johan Huizinga describes

in a publication of 1938, the ‘Homo Ludens’:

The Playing Man, praising the ‘play in art’,

and valuing the artist that turns away from

the restrictions of traditional art disciplines.

If the artist is indifferent to the mainstream

perception, Huizinga believes that the struggle

might generate the seed for a new movement.14

However, street art phenomena such as Banksy

are integrated into popular culture and his

work becomes inevitably connected to the art

market. Street Art and its subcultures emerge

in the streets without any institutional power,

but meanwhile ‘legal’ Street Art has become

globally accepted. Although Street Art is made

outside, it is not Outsider Art, which is used to

describe the art of people who create external

to the establishment.

Street Art has evolved over the past decade.

The art in PUBLIC represents a group of

painters –muralists - that paint large-scale

murals globally. They travel to metropolises

and remote areas to create work. They adapt

themselves to new situations and paint with

rollers, brushes or spray cans out of a cherry

picker basket. The artists in PUBLIC are

connected by their passion of mural painting

and travel. Every time they reach a new city

they face a new challenge, a blank canvas in

the middle of a public space. The performance

of painting is not hidden anymore, and the

public often becomes integrated in the mural

experience. Neighbours hang out, taking time

out of their everyday to spend time in front

of the wall, an encounter which may be a

fundamental part of the execution of the mural.

For the artists in PUBLIC, art is closely related to

the way they live their life and is a reflection of

life itself. As Remed painted in calligraphy on a

remote building in the Pilbara, ‘My lines are our

song, to life we belong’.

The Future Iron Train, Pixel Pancho, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.


Not All Pain Is Bad, Andrew Frazer, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Mahi Mahi, Amok Island, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Jaz, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Brendan Hutchens.E.L.K., Perth, 2014. Photographer David Dare Parker.

Stormie Mills, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Modern Family, Jetsonarama, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Human Effect 2013-2014, Yandell Walton, Perth, 2014. Image Courtesy of the Artist.

Dementia, Gaia, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Telepathy, Hurben, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor. Anya Brock, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

The Equilibrium, Stormie Mills, Perth, 2014. Photographer David Dare Parker. YEAH YEAH YEAH, Lucas Grogan, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean-Paul Horré.


PUBLIC House started as a challenge for

Perth’s creative community to explore the

full dimension of creative place making and

urban design, offering up the central Wolf

Lane as their canvas. What could be achieved

when we dare to innovate and imagine,

explore and experiment in public spaces?

How could blank walls and dead spaces be

transformed over a weekend into places that

could engage pedestrians, ignite curiosity

and draw people in?

The result was PUBLIC House, a culmination

of ideas and installations to collectively

demonstrate the potential of Perth spaces. As

a part of PUBLIC: Art in the City, the linchpin of

the weekend was the concentration of ‘world

class’ artworks transforming large scale walls

throughout the laneway into an outdoor public

gallery. With this street art as its backdrop,

PUBLIC House saw Wolf Lane enlivened with

temporary installations, digital projections,

DJ’s and local musicians, and a pop up bar,

each working synergistically to excite, surprise

and entertain the public over two days and

nights.

Alongside PUBLIC’s muralists, local designers,

architects, artists and students were invited

to design and create temporary installations

to transform hidden nooks and uninspiring

spaces into engaging places that captivated

the public. Over the two days an unnoticed

passage wall suddenly became the canvas

for a beautiful French poem by Anne-

Laure Gunson Bouillet; an alcove, with the

simple edition of colourful hanging tape,

enticed children to play and dance under

the streamers; a concrete board with an

image only visible when sprayed with water

from pistols by Concrete-a-fish, provided

endless entertainment for passersby. Vibrant

Moveable Lounges were the simple solution

to rest weary legs, being perfectly placed by

spectators to observe the local happenings or

perhaps to enjoy a game of chess and a coffee

from the local cafes.

PUBLIC House

The transformation of a rundown car park

proved to be a highlight of the weekend.

During the day, a collective of local, national

and international artists converted the heavily

grafittied car park walls into a gallery of urban

art. By night the space came alive with a pop-

up bar and an exciting line-up of local DJ’s and

musicians. As night rolled on, the crowd grew

and the laneway came alive with colour, sights

and sound. VJ Zoo’s colourful projections lit

up the grey walls, responding to movement

and captivating everyone who walked by,

particularly children who were often transfixed

at how their shadows could be reflected in a

technicolour wash.

In contrast to the pumping beats of the car

park DJ’s, a barely audible strumming of a

guitar emanated from ‘Folk in a Box’ by Joel

Barker – an intimate installation that offered

performance of a different kind. After waiting

their turn on comfy couches visitors were

welcomed through the cupboard door to

where a single car bay had been converted

into a stage for two – the performer and one

guest who experienced their very own private

musical performance. Sitting in the darkness,

listening to a melodic voice and the smooth

folk guitar would be a highlight for many

visitors.

Perth’s creatives were challenged to think

again on the possibilities of public space – and

in the process they showed how places could

be transformed with simple, inexpensive

interventions that make people stop, engage

and enjoy. PUBLIC House showed creativity

at play. But this was no one-way imposition

of ideas. Audiences responded in kind,

taking on these spaces and installations as

their own creative tools to re-shape, enjoy

and enliven the laneway through their own

energy. It highlighted the dynamic generated

between creatives and audiences recast as

collaborators across space and time in our

public laneways and spaces. So PUBLIC House

asks the question: what other new ideas could

Perth’s creatives initiate and invent in order to

re-imagine, refresh and revitalise our public

space? If the solutions offered for PUBLIC

House 2014 is anything to go by, we eagerly

await the next instalment.

PUBLIC House in Wolf Lane, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

PUBLIC House in Wolf Lane, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.


“Slowly the businesses that back on to the laneway are starting to turn around… Anything we can do to encourage people into the underutilised spaces, such as adding artwork, will make the city feel bigger and give people more options.”Patrick Coward, Margaret River Chocolate Company14

PUBLIC House in Wolf Lane, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.


The Origins of Public Art

The launch of Form’s PUBLIC, a “celebration

of urban art and creativity” making use of the

kinds of urban spaces which typically fly under

the radar is an opportunity to reflect on the

nature and role of what is generally known as

public art.

Of course, there is nothing new about public

art. Try going back to the cave paintings of

Lascaux, 17,300 years ago – or even further

with the cave and rock art of north-western

Australia. What is intriguing about these early

forms of art is that, even though we know it

was a form of public or collective art, we still

do not really know what the precise purpose

of it was.

Was it the result of an evidential, all-too-human

attempt to record the facts of the world around

us? Was it a way to objectify a subjective

experience? Or was it a ritualistic, shamanistic

act of magic?

Probably, it was a combination of things. But

what really rings a chord for me is the latter.

I like the idea of art as something alchemical

which transforms the everyday into something

precious.

Schopenhauer called art imaginative

perception. In other words, a creative

transformation of what we see about us.

Both the making of art and our encounter

with it is about how subjective experience

becomes objectified - something which has

been experienced internally is given material

form and made available, out there, for

contemplation.

This is art in general. But public art is different

in at least one crucial way. Where the fine arts

imply private contemplation, public art focuses

on collective identity, and on the significance of

the public realm rather than the private space of

individual consciousness.

Of course, it is not quite as clear cut as that.

I don’t stop being an individual just because

I am in a public space. But my own personal

responses are very much tempered by the

fact that I am in that public space and invited

– by the artistic intervention in that space

– to reflect on a public landscape as well as

my own internal landscape. The uniqueness

of my individual consciousness starts up a

conversation with my socially constructed self.

Actually, if we look at the history of public art,

we see a certain circularity. As Ruskin pointed

out (in The Stones of Venice, 1853), ‘public art’

was not originally autonomous – it was integral

to buildings. Whether it was Greek temples or

Gothic cathedrals, the sculptures and paintings

were a part of the building and served a

mix of social, religious and ritual functions.

There were exceptions. In the Renaissance,

for example, artists such as Michelangelo,

Bernini and Donatello produced free-standing

sculptures. But broadly speaking, sculpture

did not really come down off the pedestal

and away from the wall until Rodin’s Burghers

of Calais (1889), a piece which significantly

aimed to provoke critical reflection on an

historical event, thus flagging a key strategy

in contemporary public art. Otherwise, public

art has served a largely memorial function and

continues to do so to this day. While memorial

art invariably occupies prominent sites and

may be located at specific sites because of the

historical significance which the memorial

celebrates, it is not otherwise site-specific.

The big move on the way to site-specific public

art was ‘land art’ or ‘earth art’ beginning in the

1970s with figures such as Robert Smithson,

Richard Long, Michael Heizer, Richard Serra,

Dennis Oppenheim, Walter de Maria, Christo,

Hamish Fulton and Andy Goldsworthy (who,

over a period of time, has completed projects

in the inland of South Australia and Western

Australia).

But land art throws up a paradox because, as

artist, Robert Morris, once pointed out, this

work – being often in deliberately remote

locations – was not really ‘public’ at all “since

the only meaningful public access was through

photographic documentation”. And Walter de

Maria commented that “isolation is the essence

of land art”.

But there was a key idea behind land art which,

once it made its way into the forefront of artists’

consciousness, meant that these interventions

in the landscape eventually migrated from their

typically rugged, remote, desert landscape

into the urban landscape. Often - although by

no means always - as with inner city laneway

locations and derelict buildings, the sites

were the urban equivalent of those remote,

neglected, degraded and seemingly unfriendly

locations.

The Creative City

It was not an original idea, but more a

foregrounding of a function which has

always been true of art, public or otherwise

- namely, to heighten our awareness of the

world around us in order to trigger a creative

encounter with it. Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970,

a stone causeway which spirals into Great Salt

Lake, Utah which is sometimes visible and

sometimes not, according to water levels) is a

two-way dialogue between his construction

and the landscape it sits in. Indeed, Smithson

is central to contemporary public art and its

urban interventions. In his critical writings

he was particularly interested in the role of

landscape architecture in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries and how architectural

elements worked together with the landscape

to generate imaginative encounters - or,

alternatively, how the Picturesque movement

(Frederick Law Olmsted, Ebenezer Howard)

aimed to smooth out any ‘blemishes’ on the

landscape, much as a painter might smooth

over the surface of a painting to remove any

texture.

Art has always been concerned with

challenging our perceptual habits, demanding

that we not take the world for granted.

Landscape painting was an imaginative

response to the natural landscape. The new

urban art, however, draws attention to the

urban landscape.

A big difference here is the way the new urban

art plays with context. The natural landscape

is layered by receding planes and all the

various material elements such as rocks, trees,

plants etc. The urban landscape is also layered

in this physical way, but it also has a huge

amount of contextual layering - site, history,

past and present functions, culture. Hence, the

interventions - either creative modifications or

using the site as a canvas for the art - engage

in a dialogue with the site. The art is not

autonomous, but part of and a response to

the site.

The purpose of this kind of art is to heighten

our awareness of the urban landscape and

the social space we inhabit. It does this by

triggering creative or imaginative responses,

leading to encounters which - as in all art - are

a mix of the aesthetic, the emotional and the

intellectual.

Charles Landry comments in his The Art of

City Making (2006), that the aim of public art

is to make the city a living work of art, giving

citizens permission to be creative in every

aspect of their social and professional lives.

There have been many precedents for PUBLIC

in Australia and around the world, but it is

particularly apt and timely for Perth. As the

city surges through a phase of development

which will change its character fundamentally

and permanently, PUBLIC will help us engage

creatively with the genius loci of the city, that

basic character formed over many years which

must never be lost if we are to continue to

enjoy that sense of belonging which is crucial

to our humanity.

Who we are is a creative construction

assembled from the materials of the world

around us. This results from an active

engagement. The urban art of laneways and

forgotten spaces helps shift us from being

passive observers to being active collaborators

in the making of our world.

Paul McGillick

The Creative Citizen

Paul McGillick lived for many years in Perth. He is now a Sydney-based writer on architecture, art and design.

I like the idea of art as something alchemical which transforms the everyday into something precious.

PUBLIC house in Wolf Lane, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

PUBLIC house in Wolf Lane, Perth, 2014. Photographer David Dare Parker.

PUBLIC house in Wolf Lane, Perth, 2014. Photographer David Dare Parker.


“Hugely [important]. Love the character a regenerative project like this brings to the area, being a slightly vacuous area. It brings character and atmosphere without being contrived.” PUBLIC attendee



ROA (1976) is a mural artist. Urban Muralism

is a movement that falls under the umbrella

of Street Art. ROA is internationally acclaimed

for large scale murals presenting animal

compositions in black and white that follow an

intuitive and process-based approach, as this

rare insight into his career shows.

Born in Ghent, a medieval provincial town in

the North of Belgium, ROA did not grow up

in a metropolitan landscape. Ghent is well

known for its 15th century altarpiece The

Lamb of God, a milestone in European history

of painting that attracts tourists from around

the world. During the 1980s when citizens of

Ghent were still preoccupied with pursuing

the stolen panel of The Lamb of God, in the

US a new culture sprouted on the periphery

of turbulent cities. Hip Hop culture was built

on the streets of East and West Coast cities by

young creatives making music, doing graffiti

Nevertheless ROA possessed a natural zeal

to draw daily in black books, an instinctive

reflex that never seemed to require any effort.

Likeminded friends gathered together in their

studios and apartments to make music, sketch

and paint outdoors. Ghent is a densely built

town. They were on the lookout for more

remote places in the suburbs to exercise

their creativity. ROA embellished the graffiti

of his friends with characters and started to

develop his own approach to mural painting. A

transition was happening, both artistically and

personally, inevitably connected to each other.

For a while it seemed as though his work would

stay private and hidden; today it is seen all over

the world.

ROA began to evolve strong individuality

which reflected his innate interests. From

childhood onwards he was captivated by

nature and particularly by animals. With an

eye like a hawk, he could detect minute details

from moving animals to insects to birds.

Animals had always been a point of focus in

his childhood drawings, and as a young boy

he collected comics, copying the illustrations

and eventually creating his own. During

his teenage years drawing the anatomy of

animals challenged him to understand and to

capture their representation. He also trained

in traditional human anatomy by taking after

hours drawing classes and he bought old

scientific animal books that inspired him in his

practice. As an avid sketcher, he transmitted

evidence of his drawings into his painting. With

a combination of hatching and charcoal lines

this created a style that he continued to evolve

from these early days.

Living in an old monastery as a kid encouraged

ROA’s passion for abandoned and neglected

places. After the industrial revolution, Ghent

became a manufacturing boomtown, and

was referred to as ‘The Manchester of the

Continent’. However, its prominence crashed

during the World Wars. The city’s industrial

past is illustrated by the abandoned factories

on its outskirts. ROA was making a living by

giving creative workshops for kids, troubled

youth and disabled people, but after hours he

would paint in those dreary, decayed places on

a daily basis.

He describes them as an oasis in the city

where he found the harmony to experiment.

He would jump over fences, survey a site and

eventually, steadily populate it with animals.

The factories were often entirely painted

when demolition finally took place. Once he

witnessed how a crane smashed a trailer he

painted on in one of these places. The factories

functioned as his drawing pad and he filled

these empty decayed structures with new life

through his vigorous painting. ROA infused

the spirit of these places artistically into his

site-specific work. It was here he started to

consider context in his paintings, with the

tactile quality of the structure and textures. The

remnants of human activity, overgrown with

weeds and fungus (hand in hand with rodents

and birds reshaping their territory in the urban

landscape), became the backdrop for his

often dazed and disorientated animals which

emerged in the foggy atmosphere.

By actively painting in those forlorn places he

encountered urban explorers, most importantly

urban architectural photographers. They would

be the first besides ROA himself to document

his work. In the beginning he was reluctant

to show them around the sites, as he felt they

were interfering in his back garden - most of

the time nobody was there more than him.

Many of the paintings were never meant to

be shown in public, as ROA experienced the

sites as his own experimental zones, where,

from time to time, he would collaborate with

fellow artists. One of those urban explorers

was Kriebel, a Belgian native who filmed one of

the factories in 2009, where ROA had created.

His movie, Urban Jungle, was published on

Wooster Collective in July 2009 and a stream

of reactions followed; suddenly ROA’s backyard

was exposed globally.

This turning point was also catalysed by ROA’s

prior visits to Berlin, Barcelona, New York and

Los Angeles. Before the movie went viral,

ROA went on a trip to NYC in February, where

he walked into the gallery Factory Fresh in

Bushwick, fleeing a snowstorm. He talked with

the gallery owners and asked if perhaps they

had a wall to paint. Although they were leaving

for the evening, they allowed ROA to paint their

backyard. It was freezing and the snow left

a thick white carpet on the ground, but ROA

wanted to realize one of his teenage dreams:

painting in NYC, even if it was the backyard of

a gallery. When the gallery owners returned,

they were blown away by one of this unknown

artist’s iconic birds. They immediately offered

him his first US solo show and invited him to

join them at the opening of an artist who is

nowadays a good friend, the artist Remed.

ROA often organised his own walls: he even

rang doorbells to talk with owners and to

persuade them to give him their walls to paint.

He didn’t know that one day people would offer

him walls. In the fall of 2009 he got offered his

first large scale mural in Warsaw. Again under

freezing temperatures he ascended to paint a

composition of sleeping bears.

Artist Profile

Roa: ‘La Bete Humaine’Ann Van Hulle

and break dancing. It echoed across the ocean

and was adopted by youth on the European

continent.

As a teenager ROA became absorbed by the

music of Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys and

EPMD. The internet had yet to take hold, and

music was sold on vinyl. ROA attended gigs to

immerse himself in this sound. His first worthy

possessions were two second-hand Technics

turntables. In those early teenage years he

discovered the book Subway Art (1984),

which triggered him and a friend to create

their own graffiti under a town bridge - most

likely his first act of street art. Attending Art

School was a natural choice after ROA left the

Rudolph Steiner School. Nonetheless, he was

soon a school dropout: due to a combination

of both a lack of passion, and the fact he was

autonomously providing for himself as a 16-year

old living alone in a small studio.

ROA, 2010, Stavanger, Norway. Photographer Christoffer Johannesen.

ROA, Atlanta, Georgia USA, 2011. Image courtesy of the artist. ROA, Pilbara, 2011. Photographer, Sharmila Wood.


In the same autumn of 2009 Charlie from Pure

Evil Gallery in London offered him to paint the

gate in Curtain Road, again, under freezing

conditions ROA created his lenticular bunny.

The lenticular bunny and the Urban Jungle

movie brought much attention to the artist,

who earlier that year was described by RJ from

Vandalog as “my favourite artist you’ve never

heard of”.

2010 would be a year of magic. ROA would

travel and show all around Europe and the US.

The artist-nomad was born and it was time

to leave the cradle of Ghent. The factories

he had painted there were being demolished

yet his walls which arose around the globe

became documented and supported by major

specialized blogs such as Wooster Collective

(NYC), Vandalog (UK), Brooklyn Street Art (BK),

Ekosystem (EU), and Unurth (LA). Inevitably

these blogs have contributed to the global

recognition ROA enjoys today. In 2010 ROA

travelled to Paris, London, New York and Los

Angeles for solo shows and participated in

mural festivals in Spain, Italy, Norway, Germany,

Russia and more. In this year he began to

understand the dynamic of painting big murals,

arriving in new situations with new walls in

different environments and different fauna.

ROA has been pushing the heights mentally

and physically throughout his travels. The

travels brought him closer to his core subject:

the animals. As Charles Darwin would say

during his Voyage of the Beagle: “it appears

that nothing can be more improving to a young

naturalist, than a journey in distant countries.”15

ROA’s art is always related to his location,

as he chooses to depict native animals of

the countries he visits. Showing the citizens

their natural environment in an urbane

space is a device to show people the life

which surrounded them, particularly as

animals are increasingly being subordinated

to human existence as they lose territory

to urban development, global warming and

environmentally-unfriendly politics. The fate of

animals is often in the hands of mankind, and

in this era, humankind never has been more

estranged from its origin and nature. ROA is

interested in opening up this dialogue: he is

stimulated by the dynamics of globalisation

and nature, in the way nature adapts to

changing habits and the attitude of humanity;

how European settlement and colonisation

have impacted nature. During his travels he

spends time in sanctuaries, natural parks and

neglected urban places. ROA considers his art

an ongoing study; something that evolves with

his experiences. In this regard ROA is an artist-

explorer, driven by the desire to explore his

environments and to translate his research into

his murals and art work.

In February 2010, ROA opened his first

international solo show in Paris and began to

reflect on painting for the gallery setting. While

he was painting in factories, he contemplated

his process. Naturally, he wanted to collect

material from the sites in which he’d been

painting. As an innate animal lover and a

born collector over his whole life he has

created thematic collections. Searching

through flea markets, he attached more value

to an object that tells him a story than to a

new mass-produced object. He demounted

rickety structures of cabinets and metal signs

from forlorn factories to bring home. The

relationship between the materials and the

place became a central focus in his work.

When ROA arrives in a city to work on a show,

he starts from the beginning. He browses the

city, seeking specific materials that reflect the

place, and recycles them to create his own

canvas. He picks up parts from scrap-yards,

and props from antique stores. Most of his

works now can be considered art installations.

They are built to be interactive with the viewer.

Like a carpenter he builds his own structures

that are an assemblage of scrap wood and

other found materials. The representation is

multiplied by the structure, showing different

perspectives, exhibiting art that unfolds in a

prism of metaphorical meanings and has plural

anatomical angles.

ROA’s interest in animals and collecting has

driven his own private collection. He has

created his own Wunderkammer during the

past years; an accumulation of souvenirs

and found objects from his travels. He has

investigated this concept in past shows,

with props in his own curiosity cabinets,

referring to the early explorers and the

ongoing repercussions of colonisation. Often

he borrows iconic paradigms from Natural

History such as dioramas, cabinets, and skulls

that he reinterprets in a neo-colonial time.

His art installations are reflections of both

his travels and his process. In 2011 he was

invited by Jeffrey Deitch to be included in

the prestigious exhibition ‘Art in the Streets’

in MOCA, Los Angeles. ‘Art in the Streets’

presented the history of the global movement

until the emergence of new Mural Art. ROA

built an installation with doors to open and

close, ensuring an inner view of a still life of

animals. On the wall behind the entrance he

painted two hanging dead animals. Still Life

and Vanitas painting genres are often referred

to in ROA’s murals and installations. Both

genres are historical, rooted in the Low Lands,

and the depiction of inanimate and dead

animals has been interpreted in symbolism

and iconography throughout the history of

art. Animal painters reflect indirectly on their

society. A few examples of ROA’s ‘still lifes’ in

his murals are compositions of different local

animals, seemingly dormant, piled on top of

each other.

Since 2010, ROA’s life has become a

rollercoaster of travel, having participated in a

dozen mural festivals in Gambia, South-Africa,

Puerto Rico, Mexico, Sydney, Montreal, the US,

the UK and all around Europe. In between he

has undertaken art residencies in Vienna at

Museum Quartier, in the Cambodia Kampot

Province, in the Navajo Nation, in the Pilbara

outback, in the Gambian forest, and in animal

sanctuaries. Often he gets to experience

a richer quality of travel, as opposed to

wandering across the world with blinkers on.

His work has appeared in the New York Times,

The Guardian, The Age, and his murals have

been published in multiple art books. Over

the past years he has held solo shows in three

different continents and his art installations

have become more site-specific and bold. In

his quest for self-development, he dreams of

entering a new stage, a transition to create art

in close relationship to a location.

ROA’s murals are an expression of his main

passion. He follows his intuition and does not

compromise his artistic vision or process: he

adapts to situations and conditions, as animals

have to do in order to survive today.

___

15. DARWIN,CHARLES, ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’, P. F. Collier St Son, New York, 1909, pg 508.

ROA, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.


Artist Insight

Pixel Pancho

What inspired your work in Northbridge for

PUBLIC?

It was my first time in Australia and I felt I had

to base my imaginings on the knowledge I

have of Australia in Europe.

So, I based this painting on the history I knew

of Italian immigration to Perth. Italians have

always been migratory. Since the Romans,

Italians have tried to escape Italy, to live

elsewhere –one of these places was Australia,

and Perth was where the ships arrived from

Europe. The Australians, of course, reacted

badly to Italians coming to live here, as

Italians now complain about North Africans

immigrating to Italy to live and work.

So, I mix these two sides of the coin and this

work comes out of these ideas.

The reference picture I worked from is the

poster for a 1950s movie. But by the end, the

work had changed a little through the painting

process.

Pixel Pancho’s artwork can be seen at the corner of Museum and Aberdeen Streets.

Protection Against the Immigrant in Myself (Protezione Dell’Io Immigrante), Pixel Pancho, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.


Dear William, a dedication to William Street

Dear William was curated by FORM in

partnership with the City of Vincent, as an

affectionate dedication to one of Perth’s most

iconic streets. The project focused on ‘central

William Street’ (as it runs north of Newcastle

Street) and its surrounding neighbourhood.

This very small precinct – less than 1 square

km – is incredibly diverse historically,

particularly in relation to Perth’s migrant

communities, the majority of whom initially

settled within it upon arrival in Australia. Five

artists were invited to participate, all known for

their work with discrete community groups to

develop collaborative or site informed projects:

Western Australians Abdul Abdullah, Abdul-

Rahman Abdullah, Casey Ayres and Nathan

Beard, and European-based photographer

Nigel Bennet. A mural was simultaneously

commissioned for the project by Italian street

artist 2501, and a number of complementary

works selected from the broader PUBLIC

program to similarly reflect the diversity of

the precinct. These murals and installations

showed in locations along William and

Newcastle Streets in the form of a walking tour

for PUBLIC’s closing event in April, with select

works re-showing at the project’s Newcastle

Street pop-up space in early May, 2014.

Dear William’s curatorial approach contrasted

with the broader PUBLIC programme, with

Dr. Robert Cook describing the artworks as

“incredibly quiet” in his opening comments

at the exhibition artists’ talks, “...they [aren’t]

as loud as the murals that you see around,

they have a quietness to them and almost are

wilfully setting themselves up to be overlooked

in a way. And I thought that was an interesting

set of aesthetic strategies, to actually fall into

the crevices, not for the art or the aesthetics to

try to push out and try to conquer something,

but to actually reverberate with the history

of the place…” Even those mural artworks

produced for the project reflected this quality

of understatement in their refined pallets

(largely comprising black, grey, cream and

white), and ‘non-heroic’ locations, overlooking

carparks and largely set back from the street.

The residency artists created works that

reflected their own relationship to the precinct,

as much as that of the individuals who interact

with it on a daily basis. Casey Ayres’ work drew

upon the artist’s Chinese-Malay/Australian

heritage: in collaboration with the Chinese

Community Centre Lion Dance Troupe,

Ayres documented a performance work

that placed the lion dancers in and around

William Street during March, 2014. While a

familiar sight during Chinese New Year, the

lion took on a more subversive character

outside of this context, challenging passing

pedestrians to acknowledge cultural histories

they may overlook for the rest of the year. The

performance was re-staged for the exhibition

opening, culminating with the lion watching

itself on Ayres’ video, displayed in the window

of a local business.

While the precinct’s Chinese community

dates to the late nineteenth century, recent

decades have seen equally strong affiliations

with south-east Asia, via immigration from

Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Nathan Beard’s practice draws upon his Thai/

Australian heritage, and particularly explores

the experiences of his mother and other

Thai-born women of her generation. For

Dear William, he worked with the owners and

clients of two Thai video and grocery stores

located off William Street that his mother

regularly frequents. A series of interviews with

the proprietors and customers was edited

into a video work that showed on the shops

in-store televisions during the exhibition,

encouraging members of the non-Thai

community to enter the shops and experience

a space of cultural ‘otherness’ they may not

otherwise have reason to access. A more

formal documentary-style edit of the work

was created for the exhibition re-hang, where

it had to be viewed in a gallery context.

Abdul Abdullah’s practice references the

experiences of a different cultural minority,

exploring the anxiety and displacement felt

by young Muslims in contemporary Australia.

His photographic work for Dear William

aggressively camped upon the stereotypes

and paranoia associated with Muslim identity

in post-9/11 Western culture, depicting the

artist wearing a rubber mask from the 2001

film of Planet of the Apes, and clothing

popularly associated with dissenting Muslim

youth following the media coverage of the

2011 London riots. The work’s ambiguous

aggression made it difficult to place, with two

William Street businesses refusing to show it

before Northbridge icon The Moon café agreed

to exhibit it. Abdullah formerly worked as a

delivery boy for a pizza shop previously located

next to The Moon, providing a serendipitous

reference his own personal links to the precinct.

Abdullah’s brother, Abdul-Rahman

undertook a more benevolent exploration

of cultural and religious difference, creating

a stately projection of the full moon for

the north-facing wall of Perth Mosque that

acknowledged the significance of lunar

cycles to a number of religions. Hence, the

work functioned to both situate itself firmly

within Islamic tradition, while simultaneously

opening out in a gesture of inclusivity, aptly

reflecting the cultural mix of the precinct,

which alongside the Mosque has housed two

synagogues, a Vietnamese-Buddhist temple

and places of worship for Christian and

Chinese communities, over the past century.

Photographer Nigel Bennet was

artist-in-residence in the Central William Street

Precinct from March-May 2014, developing

works in consultation with numerous local

business owners and employees, and current

and former residents. Participants were asked to

relate, reinterpret or re-stage anecdotes relating

to the area, resulting in a series of collaborative

images from the precinct’s history: a collective

conflation of its past, present and future. Again,

understatement and intimacy were central to

Bennet’s project, his subjects largely relating

intimate moments of personal significance

or catharsis, rather than heroic narratives or

melodrama.

Finally, internationally-renowned street artist

2501 (Jacopo Ceccarelli) created a striking

mural for the new Washing Lane development,

a site reflecting the precinct’s gentrification

during the past decade (its first in 180 years).

2501 is famed for his large-scale murals in

black and white, which create optical effects

through a complex use of line. In a street

with over a century of history relating to the

state’s Italian community, his work provided an

assertive statement of cultural identity.

In addition to these residency projects

delivered in partnership with City of Vincent, a

number of artists from FORM’s broader PUBLIC

program produced new works for the area.

The first Turner Gallery Art Angels residents

for 2014, The Yok and Sheryo produced the

exhibition Nasty Goreng at the leading local

gallery in association with PUBLIC, which drew

upon the decorative traditions of Indonesia.

The pair additionally created a mural for the

adjacent carpark, complemented by a mural

by PUBLIC artist Jaz, and a facade treatment

for the gallery by local artist Trevor Richards,

a founding member of the Australian Centre

for Concrete Art collective responsible

for numerous large-scale minimalist and

geometric-abstract murals throughout Perth

and Fremantle. Dear William additionally

featured works by young clients of the

Salvation Army Doorways Program, mentored

by street artists Ian Strange and Daek William,

former members of iconic street art collective

Last Chance who called William Street home

until 2010.

The more curatorial research I undertook for

this project, the more excited I became at the

area’s almost unimaginable diversity in the

context of a city as young and geographically

expansive as Perth. I was unaware for example

that the area was Perth’s Jewish quarter for

the majority of the twentieth century, or of

the colourful lives (and deaths) of community

icons such as notorious brothel madam,

Shirley Finn. Not all of this research made

it into the final exhibition, but I hope it may

come to light through future such projects. My

favourite review of Dear William was by local

Andrew Nicholls, FORM Curator

Dear William

academic, blogger and font-designer Daniel

Midgely, whose typeface ‘Daniel’ we used

for the exhibition logo. “I love Perth because

people can get sentimental about a street” he

blogged prior to the exhibition opening, and

while I’m sure his observation was not entirely

benign, it nicely summed up Dear William’s

idiosyncratic engagement with local history.

800 Minutes, the Burrow of the Rainbow Serpent, 2501, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Calendar, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Northbridge, 2014.

Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Someone Else’s King and Someone Else’s Country, lightbox installation

by Abdul Abdullah, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor

Casey Ayres, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.Jaz, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Brendan Hutchens.


When did you start to think of yourself

as an artist?

I started to feel I was an artist when I started

thinking about what I wanted to say on the

walls. There is a point where you enjoy the

process of painting just for the process, but

also there is a moment that has to do with the

maturation of the individual. You understand

through certain processes that we can say

something important, or at least generate

questions to the observer.

Why do you paint on the street?

I believe that painting on the streets creates

unexpected moments. In my case Buenos

Aires (where I live) is a chaotic city, everything

is so messy it looks set to explode. The days

are always different, each day is distinct. In this

environment working in the streets creates

situations that you do not expect or can’t

control. Maybe I go to paint with an idea, but

when I’m painting something new is generated,

there is a dialogue between the wall, or people.

I know I have control over the process of

creating, but in the end I don’t have it because

the work is not mine. It belongs to the people.

That’s what excites me about painting on the

streets: you lose control when you think you

have it.

In some of our conversations we’ve spoken

about the connection between art and

politics. How does your artistic practice

reflect your politics?

Painting on the streets is a political action, even

if the person who paints doesn’t want to say

anything. It is a message, because the action of

painting happens in a common space, perhaps

the only place where we interact, perhaps the

only place that we think is ours: the streets.

The walls are the consequences of not feeling

represented in the place where everyone can see,

and that’s politics, that is what surrounds it.

Artist Interview

EverWhen the Argentinian based artist Ever quit cigarettes but not graffiti he realised that painting was

no longer a past time. Now, his every day is organised around what to paint, where to paint, and

how to paint. In Perth and the Pilbara for PUBLIC, Ever spoke to Sharmila Wood, FORM Curator.

You seem to represent women in your

work - why?

Women represent the republic, sensitivity,

freedom, dreams, the peace of our bodies.

The nature of truth.

Do you feel that this approach is objectifying

to women?

Believing that I use women as objects in my

work is wrong, they are the bridge to the

compression of my complex ideas.

Can you tell me about your experience in

Perth and explain the work you created in

Northbridge.

Migration is a piece that talks about the

movement of people, not just the movement

of the body, but also the mind and culture.

This figure Landing is wrapped in the flag of

Australia. The flag is the invisible division that

sometimes leaves us to move us forward or

back as human beings. The Figure deposited

a thought (represented on the small portrait)

near the door. We are never going to know if it

is open or closed: that is a free interpretation of

the observer.

Following your time in Perth you travelled

to the Pilbara with a group of the PUBLIC

artists. What was significant to you about this

experience?

The Pilbara experience was exciting. I never

expected so much information for my head!

I think as a street artist to find myself in a

situation that is not a city scared me, excited

me, but above all I was there to understand.

Nature in the Pilbara seems to speak with you.

Every day we had new talks. Every day I felt her

message getting through my eyes to stay in my

mind. The most important thing for me was

seeing it from the eyes of the Aboriginal people,

not the Western human vision.

You ended up extending your stay after

everyone else had left to spend time at

FORM’s Spinifex Hill Studio (Aboriginal Art

Centre). What was the connection you felt to

the artists, particularly Selena? What do you

see in Aboriginal art?

When I got into the Studio, I felt scared to see

such beautiful art, art that comes from the soul,

from the depths of hearts, of knowledge. I felt

that these artists don’t need inspiration; they

were just a bridge between culture and the

Pilbara, a bridge of history. There is a connection

that we can’t understand because we were

educated in the Western culture. They just

allowed themselves to paint without any fear,

any issues.

I felt completely connected with the work of

Selena. Her works were waves of energy; it

was a sign of her soul. But it was hard to talk to

her. Every day I was trying to talk with her, but

every small step forward made my day happy.

To start she didn’t like my work. That put me in

a position to fight against my ego, in order to

find an artistic connection. I painted every day

trying to forget what I knew and trying to be

like her, to create a bridge. She was telling me

about her family and I tried to imagine that life,

I wanted that life. She was an inspiration for me.

That was the reason I was trying to understand,

listen, look. I finally managed to do two works

that came of playing, pretending to be someone

else. I think Selena liked these two works. She

liked the colours and shapes. That made me

the happiest man in the world - the exchange

of culture, of two different cultures that live

together.

Migration, Ever, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

MAANI GURI NURAH, REMED and Ever, Roebourne, 2014. Photographer Sharmila Wood.


Phlegm, Port Hedland, 2014. Photographer Brendan Hutchens.


Sharmila Wood, FORM Curator

Another Place

As part of PUBLIC, FORM Curator Sharmila Wood travelled with Ever (Argentina) and REMED (France/Spain) to the Indigenous town of Roebourne where, working with local Ngarluma people, they painted an abandoned building where the sky meets the earth in the spirit of improvisation.

There is a universe of colour on display in

the Pilbara. In this landscape an ancient,

pindan red glows as though the earth has

been turned inside out. It’s in the rocks and

hills, in the setting sun and the rising sun, it’s

radiating from the clay and giving warmth to

the earth. Purple is a colour that is overlooked

in this landscape of bold, seductive red, but

it’s also everywhere. From violets, to mulberry,

to mauve you find the spectrum of gentler

purples in the Pilbara; from the ground where

lavender mulla mullas rise up after the rains,

to the sky at dusk. In fact, these purple skies

can be so overwhelmingly sublime, that it’s

quite possible to lapse into a pointless nostalgia

as the sun sets. In this light, the white paint

on the building painted by Ever and Remed

just out of Roebourne blushes a soft pink.

As though it is living, the shed transforms

at different times of the day like a reflective

surface for the sky and land surrounding it.

I spent a number of days with the artists as

they painted the corrugated iron shed, and as

they built their compositions I noticed how at

midday the gold in Remed’s work caught the

bright light, glowing like the mineral found

in creeks and riverbeds around the Pilbara.

In the afternoon, a blue sky presents an aura

around the artwork and from some angles

the blue shapes in both paintings look as

though they could detach and float upwards

in union with the cloudless sky. Whether

sharpening the painting, warming the colours

or framing the building in its expansive

horizon, the environment of the Pilbara plays

a key role in the creation of this artwork.

The shed that has been painted was part of

the old Roebourne Airport complex, but is

now a lonely structure in an incomprehensibly

expansive plateau of crisp, golden spinifex.

The building is framed between triangular

hills that appear from a distance, to look like

pyramids displaced from Egypt. Now re-

created by street artists from urban centres

as a creative three-dimensional work, the

shed could appear absurd, but it doesn’t.

Perhaps this is because the topography

and atmosphere of the Pilbara has seeped

into the artwork in forms and shapes.

Whilst finishing his work Remed looks to the

constellation in the night sky as a guide for

the stars he paints into the picture, whilst

Ever, enchanted by the moon, represents the

lunar phases with a woman’s face illuminated

by a field of exploding colour- as rich as the

Pilbara’s visual spectrum. The materiality

of the shed with the undulating lines of

corrugation provides the ideal surface for

Remed’s boat to be applied, evoking the

idea of ocean and movement. I have my

doubts about the paranormal, but something

uncanny may have been at work in finding this

particular site. Placed in a different context

the artwork would lose much of its meaning.

Yet, it’s not only the colours or the wondrous

environment that works on you in the Pilbara,

the remoteness and wildness elicits a different

sensory awareness and perception. Whilst the

mining industry races forward in mechanised,

industrialised time around you, there are still

many places where you can welcome the

quietness. In a society where everything is

about acceleration, with limited Internet and

phone connectivity you can be freed from the

preoccupations and anxiety of technology.

Sitting with the dust dirtying my feet, I

feel a sense of overwhelming release from

the gadgets of modernity, and a sense

of connectedness to the present. Remed

commented how these qualities of the Pilbara

impacted him. “In the city I don’t follow

nature’s cycle. Here, naturally, my reason just

follows the sun because I am connected and

feeling I am in the present, for me that is the

best. In the city I don’t wake up at the sunrise.

For what? To see concrete or advertising?”

The building they paint is all that remains of

the old Roebourne Airport now that it’s been

replaced by a larger, newer version in Karratha.

This shift reflects the demise of Roebourne

as the region’s central hub, a cycle of boom

and bust, of retraction and expansion that

mirrors the fortunes of the town throughout

its colonial history. Like many places around

Roebourne the shed is in a state of neglect,

but now, it begins to bring new audiences to

it, most of whom are not from a traditional

art public. Resplendent in the colours of the

Pilbara, the shed also represents place created.

REMED, South Hedland, 2014. Photographer Sharmila Wood. MAANI GURI NURAH, REMED and Ever, Roebourne, 2014. Photographer Sharmila Wood.


Keith Churnside, who belongs to the Ngarluma

community and upon whose traditional

lands the building has been constructed,

brings his family to view the shed and they

return at different times of day to see it again

and again. I have known Keith for many

years and he has been our guide. He has

also developed a friendship with the artists,

and in this way the site becomes a place

for human encounters, for the expression

of the relationships and connections that

can emerge on these journeys. The artwork

synthesises the artist’s experience of being

here, of the many transient, beautiful

encounters we’ve had on the trip through

Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi country with

Indigenous men Clinton Walker and Keith.

In sharing their knowledge about Indigenous

cosmogonies where earth, body and spirit

connect, Clinton and Keith reveal other ways

of being and other ways of knowing the

world. I’ve spent the last five years learning

and participating in Pilbara Indigenous culture

and whilst I have so much still to learn, I do

feel more aware about the depths of the world

around us, about the visible and invisible

connecting. As the world’s oldest continuous

culture, the Pilbara’s Indigenous people hold

knowledge that is connected with ancient

ways, from the Ngurra Nyujunggamu-

a time when the world was soft.

Whilst Remed and Ever are strangers in this

land, and don’t deny their ignorance, or the

difficulty of leaving behind their presumptions

about what they will find, they are looking to

connect with people in a meaningful way and

acquire a certain amount of understanding

about the processes and histories that are

going on here. Remed was fascinated with

the petroglyphs along the Burrup, one of the

world’s largest and oldest collections of rock

art, as a way to understand the essence of

creation and the human imagination. “I’m

very interested in knowing other points of

view and remembering that we come from

a very, very long time ago. We didn’t live as

we live in this modern world. The petroglyph

is like a memory of who we were, and even

though I cannot understand it, I want to see

it, I want to feel it, as I want to touch a sacred

place, or to hear about the oldest stories,

about the creation of our world or human

kind, and the petroglyphs are part of that.”

Although we’ve only skimmed across

the encyclopaedic knowledge that exists

here, it has been expansive, illustrating

how ancient knowledges can be valued

by people from radically divergent worlds,

reflecting the importance of connections and

differences between cultures and the way

these encounters can reveal more about our

existence. It’s a reminder that in a rapidly homogenising

world there are different ways of living and

thinking that can disrupt the dominant

idea of modernity in which we live; there

are other social and economic systems

available to construct our world. Both

artists are critical of the structure of

modernity that exists in the cities in which

they live, which Remed cites as being part

of, “the erasure of memory, the illusion of

progress, the abundance of uselessness,

the illusion of domination over nature.”

For some time I’ve been reading the work of

Wade Davis and his ideas of the ‘ethnosphere,’

a term he uses to describe the sum total

of all the thoughts, beliefs, myths, and

institutions brought into being by the human

imagination.16 Davis argues the ethnosphere is

critical to the meaning of being human, to the

artistic, intellectual, and spiritual expression

of the full complexity and diversity of the

human experience.17 Davis warns against the

impoverishment that will result as cultures and

languages disappear. It fills me with sadness

that I am witnessing this diminishment, that

the Indigenous cultures in the Pilbara are listed

by UNESCO as under threat of extinction,

and that languages are disappearing, which,

along with an estimated half of the 6000

plus languages spoken today will disappear

by the end of this century. According to

UNESCO, the danger is that humanity

will lose not only cultural wealth but also

important ancestral knowledge embedded,

in particular, in Indigenous languages.18

Yet, as a believer in humanity, I’m also hopeful.

In this century of globalisation I love the way

street artists from Europe and South America

can connect with, imbibe and admire cultures

so far from their own; that they now carry

ideas and values of Indigenous culture back

home, to perhaps share alternative, divergent

ways of being in the modern system in which

they live, and maybe they’ll return to learn

more. Indeed, their practice as street artists

is situated as a counter to modernity and its

crushing materialism. For instance, this act

of painting in the Pilbara produces nothing

in the way of saleable objects and upsets the

regulation of public space by bureaucracy.

Beyond the gallery walls, in an unexpected

location, the artwork is essentially democratic:

anyone with a car can drive out to see it, touch

it, really do as they wish. It’s beyond our

control, and whether or not it is vandalised

is a test of people’s opinion on its merit.

The shed offers a welcome surprise in an

otherwise forgotten, desolate space. Remed

creates the work he has been developing since

he arrived in Australia with elegant precision.

The profiles and curves of interlocking shapes

and figures form a harmonious duality,

and whilst Remed has his own description

of what he has painted, it’s quite open to

interpretation. “You can arrive, anyone can

arrive and see something else in my painting,”

Remed says. On the last day of our time in the

Pilbara, I witness how the painting unlocks

a deep emotion in Keith, as though it has

tapped into his subconscious. I detect some

melancholy and I feel he’s thinking about his

love, his wife, who recently passed away. He

says there is a beautiful woman in the middle

of the painting. I can’t see her, but that’s

not the point. Remed’s abstract figuration

allows for what can be felt and intuited.

Ever returns to Port Hedland, but before Remed

and I fly back to Perth we are invited to the

house of Keith’s sister in Roebourne where

we meet some people from the community.

Remed is struck by the impoverished material

realities of life here, and I’m reminded yet

again of the deep economic and social

inequities that exist in Roebourne compared

to where I live in Australia. Everyone is

excited about the artwork. They’ve been to

see it with their children and will go back

to experience it again. Given the sensations

and feeling this artwork has gifted people, I

know I’m witnessing the energy of art, the

love which can emanate, an affect, which

cannot be measured, but must be felt.

–––

16. See Wade Davis, The Wayfinders; Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, University of Western Australia, 2009

17. See Wade Davis, The Wayfinders; Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, University of Western Australia, 2009

18. UNESCO: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/

MAANI GURI NURAH, REMED and Ever, Roebourne, 2014. Photographer Sharmila Wood. MAANI GURI NURAH, REMED and Ever, Roebourne, 2014. Photographer Sharmila Wood.



‘When someone says I can’t do something, then that just fuels my desire to create even more.’- Reko Rennie

Sharmila Wood, FORM Curator

Still Deadly

If you have recently visited Sydney you could

not have missed Reko Rennie’s T2 building

at Taylor Square. Occupying an entire corner

block, the building is painted in valiant diurnal

patterns of pink, black and blue, which

references the cultural designs and markings of

Reko’s Kamilaroi ancestry. Whilst these popping

colours are powerful, it is the neon signage,

Always was, Always will be which makes a

profound impact. The text, which is familiar

to those connected with the struggle for land

rights, asserts the presence and strength of

Indigenous communities who continue to be

largely invisible in mainstream Australia. In

contrast to the chants of protest and activist

happenings which dissipate from the street,

Reko’s artwork reclaims public space with this

poignant message of resistance.

This particular artwork is exemplary of the

way in which Reko utilises the tools and

visual language of street art as a medium for

rebellion and communication to explore the

challenges and complexities of Indigenous

identity in urban, contemporary Australia. As a

young man growing up in inner city Melbourne

Reko connected with early forms of street

art – writing, getting up, graffiti, as a model

for creative expression. He was influenced

by the movement out of New York City that

Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant captured

in Subway Art, and the seminal documentary

Style Wars, which document how this form of

creative expression was empowering people

from disenfranchised communities in the USA

to find a radical creative freedom.

Similar to the old school street art scene, Reko’s

earliest creative impulses were subversive.

However, when he decided to pursue a career

in art after working in journalism, Reko began

using the skills and tools he’d learnt on the

street to articulate his political sentiments,

melding these with a desire to represent his

experiences as an urban Indigenous man

with Kamilaroi heritage. Creating a visual

vocabulary inspired by the ethos of graffiti

and his Indigenous heritage Reko has created

a radically fresh approach to contemporary

expression that remixes diverse influences,

art movements and media. Using spray

paint, stencil, neon, sculpture, photography

and moving images, Reko moves fluidly

between the street, popular culture and

the gallery context. Collected by Australia’s

most important institutions, Reko has also

completed major commissions in Paris,

Shanghai and Washington.

FORM invited Reko to participate in PUBLIC

with Wesfarmers commissioning him to create

a large-scale installation entitled ‘Big Red’,

where a series of kangaroos that stand strong

and tall occupy the floor to ceiling space

of windows in the foyer of the Wesfarmers

corporate headquarters in Perth.

Reko also travelled to work with Aboriginal

youth in South Hedland as part of FORM’s

ongoing Pilbara programming. In a regional

environment with few opportunities to engage

with leading artists, Reko’s short term residency

demonstrated the energising DIY culture that

art can ignite, whilst also reflecting Reko’s

commitment to mentoring and empowering his

Aboriginal brothers and sisters.

Following negotiation for the relevant

permissions, a ‘Deadly’ mural emerged on a

wall in the new Osprey Development in South

Hedland, with children and teenagers using

stencil techniques they’d learnt from Reko

to embed their handprints into the letters of

‘Deadly’ - a term widely used in Aboriginal

communities which means cool or wicked. It’s

a phrase distinctively and proudly Indigenous

in character which has been adopted by The

Deadly Awards, held annually in Sydney to

celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

talent and achievement on a national stage.

The Pilbara workshop and wall was about

creating and learning, about exchanges

between people from a different place with a

different perspective; it was about young people

coming together in unity and cooperation, and

presenting them with the opportunity to feel

they were being given a voice and a making

a contribution to the community in which

they live. The intention of this project was a

harmonious and celebratory one, designed to

transform the wall from representing a barrier

into a positive symbol.

Although it is widely acknowledged that there

is an inherently transient and ephemeral quality

to art painted in public space, it is disappointing

and, seemingly unfair that this wall has already

been buffed. I can’t recall any public murals

in Western Australia that demonstrate artistic

excellence and convey a bold Indigenous

identity. So it seems some walls remain, and

you’ll have need to make a trip over east to be

reminded that this always was and always will

be Aboriginal land.

Deadly, Reko Rennie, South Hedland, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Deadly, Reko Rennie, South Hedland, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.


I arrive in the places that I travel, empty, so that

I’m able to learn something for real and leave

something for real; this is the opportunity you

have in a journey. Before I came to Western

Australia I knew very few things, but I did know

there was great rock art. When I arrive in Perth,

I become really conscious that I won’t have

access to what I want to discover, to the roots,

to the people, the land, nor the art. I feel there

is a big veil over the city’s memory and I’m

conscious there is a lack of connection with

the land. I’m in this Disneyland. It’s like any city,

but built very fast. I find some Aboriginal art

only in the museum. Even there, I’m fascinated

by only a few artworks, but ROA and I find

some books and I start to read about Old

Masters from Arnhem Land.

I make a very big connection between the

way these artists paint and the way I paint.

It’s about figurative abstraction or abstract

figuration and that’s what I do. I feel these

artists don’t always paint what they see, but

what they have seen, or what they could see.

I do just the same. They use simplicity and

geometry to express complexity. For example,

a circle can be a waterhole, it can be the sun,

it can be everything. There is no claiming of a

truth, it’s more like infinite potential, it’s very

open to interpretation, even though it’s based

on a specific truth to the artist who created it.

I’m seduced by that perception, and I see the

connection.

Naturally I’m not afraid of being inspired by

Artist Insight

Remed

Guillaume ALBY aka REMED is a leading innovator and creative whose bold, graphically inspired artwork distils complex philosophical ideas and aesthetic movements. From exploring the universal nature of human experience, to communicating emotion or feeling, REMED’s artwork is constantly in motion, responding to the different contexts and countries in which he finds himself on his travels. REMED recounts the development of the work he painted in the Pilbara.

Aboriginal artists, even though I know the art

is being wrongly used, misappropriated and

used for commercial gain in some cases. So,

even though I didn’t like feeling I was doing

wrong and using something I didn’t completely

understand, the desire for connection with

it was higher than anything else. I am totally

absorbed in all the drawings in the Arnhem

Land book, but twice I fall on a centre page,

which really strikes me with its harmony. I feel

good looking at it. I feel it’s what I have to see.

For me this is a flying boat, but it’s actually

Ngalyod, the rainbow serpent of Kuninjku

language of western-central Arnhem Land.

It looks like a ship with a head of a horse or

maybe, a seahorse, and the tail of a fish. It has

sails that look like the sleeves of a peacock. I

like it a lot. I shut the book. Naturally, without

looking at it, I draw a ship. In my work I have

represented ships many times for the idea of

movement, for travel, for challenge, and all that

you can imagine. I’m very in love with the idea

of movement, change and its evolution.

But, even though I do this drawing with

positive intention, I don’t get to paint it in Perth,

as everything goes wrong. The brush breaks

anytime I try to put it on a wall. Frustration,

frustration, logistic problems. Nothing happens

and everything happens around me. I know

there is something wrong and I know it is my

fault. I feel I should have accepted to paint

something like the faces I usually do. But,

sometimes, that’s not enough. Each time I do a

mural I want people to feel something. If I can

make them remember something that is very

large, that will make them more tolerant to the

unknown. Then I am happy.

So, I couldn’t paint in Perth, all the frustration

comes from there. I did a video that I wanted

to project but that didn’t really happen either.

The process of the drawing is in the video,

with the serpent biting his tail, endlessly in a

loop, starting with a black point and ending

with a red point, on and on. It was six hours of

non-stop drawing, erasing, drawing, erasing,

creating, erasing, creating, destroying, building.

But then, the marvellous journey happened,

finally. At last, in the Pilbara, I see what is

under the concrete. I’m there, and we get

back in touch with the earth, with land and,

with the sky, and here, I know, I will have a

better understanding of what I did wrong.

In the Pilbara I think I can have a better

understanding of what I’ve been playing

with, the serpent and human kind. I want to

understand why he didn’t let me paint.

I meet two great people, Clinton Walker and

Keith Churnside who tell me Ngarluma and

Yindjibarndi stories. We visit the place where

the creators arrive on the mountain of clay,

and the hole from which the serpent went

out. I went there with a lot of respect, a little

bit of fear. I was more a spectator and that’s

what I needed to be. I now understand this is

all I can be, towards the serpent, towards the

movement, towards the evolution of life, so I

start to understand some more.

I see guri guri, the rising star, everyday; wilara,

the moon just after the yurndu, the sun, goes

down. The most beautiful memory is the

moment when the sun was going down and

the moon was rising exactly at the perfect

alignment. This was very significant to me.

I’m there in the Pilbara and I don’t really

think about painting, I’m just thinking about

understanding, feeling and experimenting.

Finally, in the car, I take a pencil and my

sketchbook. The car is moving, and it’s not

the perfect spot to concentrate, but actually in

some way, it is, because it’s moving and I’m in

movement, and all I was drawing was about

that. I know more stories. I know the serpent is

beyond the creator, it’s something else; perhaps

it’s the creator and the destroyer. My drawing

is still the serpent, boat, flying bird, but the

human is not a human anymore. It’s a being for

sure, similar to us, but it’s actually one being

and his mirror is reflected, complementary, or

you could say opposed. On this ship there is

a sphere between two beings, but instead of

trying to go inside the serpent, they just ride it,

just handle what is to be handled. I don’t know

where I will paint this, but I know, definitely,

that it will happen, because I’m not putting

my head stupidly into what I can’t understand.

It was probably pretentious to do that first

drawing.

We see one structure on a station, which I think

will be possible to paint, but then it does not

happen. But we arrive close to Roebourne, and

Sharmila says there is another structure we can

paint. We see there is this triangle structure

with one pyramid on each side and horizon. I

knew it was the perfect place and the structure

was just a metal curved wall, like it was water,

air or a stream. So, out of the car I take a spray.

The night is almost here, but I do a horizontal,

the sphere and a sentence.

We watch the moon rise perfectly in the centre

of the building, and then the next day, it’s time

for the sun to do the same, then for the first

star to do the same. Every day I paint, I also

go to swim. I talk with my brother Keith, he

tells me stories. I learn a little bit about the

language. Ever paints the moon on the wall

of the building. I’m becoming friends with the

serpent, or maybe not friends, but maybe I’m

more in tune. Anyway, the painting happens,

the moonrises, the sun also, and my universe

is built.

On the last day, I came back to take a picture

and I decided to write a sentence. When I finish

a very careful work that is precise I like to do

something very gestural, to breathe and relax.

Here in the Pilbara, I didn’t want that, but I had

a black spray because I thought I might need to

correct some things. I had this with me and I’m

just walking by and then very naturally I write:

My Roots are My Wings. I feel I understand,

now. I got back to my roots and they can

become my wings. Then the next sentence: My

Lines are Our Songs, To Life We Belong.

It is important as an artist, more at the egoistic

level, when I finish something I have to feel

it, touch, it, understand it, finishing a process

in the step of a very large process. I look at it,

I digest it. I’m feeling very good, the stars are

all above with the painting below in the night.

The most beautiful part of this experience

was Keith. He stayed so long, so long in front

the painting, it felt so good. There were just

three of us there in front of this painting, no

sound, no words. If you said a word it would

be answered by a question, or by silence. Then

Keith sang. From very far away the lights of cars

fall over the painting. They make it glow and

then disappear and this wall of waves starts to

move.




“I understand the connection with audience a lot better now – it is not done selfishly, it’s a gift to the public.”Survey respondent

Thorny Devil, The Yok and Sheryo, Port Hedland, 2014. Photographer ?.


“I strongly believe that this type of event positively contributes to a more vibrant city environment, providing visibility and much needed support for artist development outside of the more traditional channels. Great work. Really!”Survey respondent

Making a Splash

Public Impact

PUBLIC stimulated a number of outcomes,

some intended and others unexpected.

Though qualitative assessment of such events

is difficult, there were a number of observable

outcomes in addition to those the numbers

show. The diversity in audience visitation

and the significantly positive feedback that

was generated across the main period of

activity, and indeed beyond, were important

achievements. Ultimately, audiences voted

with their feet and it was exciting to see

Perth locals and tourists alike coming out

in droves. Creatives, young professionals,

families, elderly couples, tourists, corporates,

local residents, students and more were seen

wandering the Perth CBD and Northbridge

with map in hand. While the demographics of

those attending ranged widely, the feedback

was consistently resoundingly positive. The

spread of activity generated in the CBD and

Northbridge across the weeks also extended

the range of usual activity in key city areas:

in the CBD the audiences were sustained

through Saturdays, after-hours and public

holidays in addition to the usual business and

hospitality hours; in Northbridge, audiences

were encouraged through the day, weekends

and evenings, in addition to the usual night-

life activity. Both the creative process and the

resulting artworks asked residents and visitors

to look again at the city, and discover it anew.

The increased foot traffic not only has

important flow on effects for the perceived

vibrancy of the city, but also for businesses

in the area in terms of increased customer

visitation and spend as the infographics below

illustrate. As a PUBLIC visitor interviewed on

Wolf Lane suggested, events like PUBLIC give

locals and tourists alike an opportunity to

do something different and unique in their

city, drawing people to areas that would not

usually be a destination in their own right.

The murals have become something to draw

people in, to challenge, thrill and mesmerise,

whether as a destination themselves or as

part of the everyday experience of the city.

PUBLIC was picked up internationally

by leading urban art blogs, websites and

magazines from Argentina to the USA

to France, with a number of industry

representatives making the trip to visit

from interstate for the event. The event

was reported in diverse media as a

success both locally and globally, for the

community and for the artistic sector.

The artistic community similarly rated

the event as a successful launch and

an experience to rival any they had had

internationally. This is an important part

of putting Western Australia on the map in

new ways that build a positive reputation.

Some of these more difficult to define

impacts resulting from PUBLIC are alluded

to in the testimonials of participants and

attendees recorded, a sample of which are

shown throughout this publication. While

there is nothing that can capture the buzz

and energy that was evident during the

event period, a survey was undertaken with

attendees. The following provides a snapshot

of the impact indicated in the results.

PUBLIC Salon exhibition opening, Perth, 2014. Photograph Luke Shirlaw. The Yok, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw. Alexis Diaz, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Moving Forward, Jaz, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean-Paul Horré.

PUBLIC Salon exhibition opening, FORM Gallery, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Maya Hayuk, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Jordan Seiler + Heavy Projects, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Dingo, Kangaroo, Panther, Hog, The Yok & Sheryo, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Jordan Seiler + Heavy Projects, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Phibs and Vans the Omega, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Maya Hayuk, Alexis Diaz, and Hyuro, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.


“I already love and enjoy public art, this event just proved that people do think it’s important and essential to our city.”Survey respondent

Making a Splash

Infographics


2501

The Italian artist 2501 hails from Milan and has

a background in the sciences and filmmaking.

He began painting at the age of 14. His

participation in PUBLIC produced early works

fora project he is developing over 2014, titled

“Nomadic Experiment.” In Perth he created

works on a large-scale that complement

their architectural surroundings and explore

important contextual social themes.

2501 created works at 100 Hampton Road

lodging house in Fremantle, and in the heart of

Northbridge at Washing Lane. Both display his

signature style: black and white undulating lines

that fold together to create visually striking works

that beckon the viewer in for a closer look.

The artist dedicated The Narrow Passage

(Fremantle) to anyone who has ever struggled to

“exit a difficult situation” or to achieve a new life.

It also serves as a tribute to the late Italian video

and multimedia artist, Claudio Sinatti. From the

death of a personal source of inspiration for the

artist, he has created a message of hope and

determination.

Alexis Diaz

Hailing from Puerto Rico, Diaz is one half of duo,

La Pandilla. The pair is known for their fantastical

animals, often carried out in monochromatic

black and white. Diaz incorporates contrary

elements into his animals, making them

analogous with the mythological creatures of

Ancient Greek, Roman or Egyptian folklore.

Diaz is organiser of international urban art

festival Los Muros Hablan or ‘The Walls Talk’ in

conjunction with local museum, El Museo de

Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico.

The artist has a meticulous technique based

almost entirely on simple crosshatch using a

small paintbrush to create enormous works

Artist Profiles

held four solo exhibitions in Western Australia

and participated in many group shows. For

her Masters project McFarlane produced a

body of work that investigated the connection

between technology and the feminine using

the patterns of the Pre-Raphaelites as a

common point of reference. Her subsequent

work continues to reference the histories of

scientific inquiry and the decorative arts to

investigate Australian identity. Drawing on

the designs of the William Morris Company,

she combines this lyrical Pre-Raphaelite

patterning with the detailed depiction of birds,

butterflies, insects and plants native to Australia,

arranged so as to reference the collection of

specimens for scientific inquiry. McFarlane’s

work can be found in collections including

the City of Perth, Cruthers, Curtin University,

Artbank, Joondalup Hospital and Edith Cowan

University, and on the walls of laneways

throughout the Cities of Perth and Subiaco.

E.L.K

As a former blue collar worker from Canberra,

Sydney-based stencil artist Luke Cornish (aka

E.L.K) is accustomed to meticulous manual work

and came to his multi-layering photo-realistic

stencil technique by the desire for a hobby

roughly ten years ago. Now with a rapidly

growing international career, Cornish has

lived in Melbourne and worked at well-known

collective, Blender Studios. His work typically

displays a dichotomy of self-identification.

As a street artist, E.L.K maintains a social

commentary focus, leveraging the highly visible

nature of the street ‘canvas.’ As a stencil artist,

he produces gallery and exhibition work that is

more introspective and inward-looking.

E.L.K has achieved growing acclaim both before

and since his nomination for the 2012 Archibald

Prize for portraiture, as the first stencil artist

nominated for the prestigious award. The

lightning-fast pieces created for PUBLIC rework

some of his most high profile works to date.

which boast great detail. The pieces which

are equally as at home in a gallery setting as

on a wall, often resemble large-scale intricate

engravings of folkloric, imaginary animals.

Inspired by his visit to Perth Zoo, the artist

painted the Leafy Sea Dragon (Phycodurus

eques), found along the southern and western

coasts of Australia, for PUBLIC. In contrast to his

usual imagined creatures, in this case the artist

drew on a real, yet equally fantastical creature.

Amok Island

The artist and designer known as Amok Island

originates from Amsterdam. There, he spent

more than a decade painting before embarking

on travels across the Asian continent which

eventually led him to Perth. He is a self-taught

and self-employed art practitioner whose work

reflects his fascination with the natural world.

His penchant for underwater photography

often translates to his work. One of the artist’s

most remarkable series is the large concrete

letters (spelling out ‘A M O K’) submerged

in various underwater locations off Perth,

capturing their slow incorporation into the

marine environment.

His graphic style is at once both refined and

simplistic in nature. His hand-pulled silk

screen prints and brightly coloured murals

are instantly recognisable, playful and highly

sought after. The wall he painted for PUBLIC

in the unique Wolf Lane setting takes the Mahi

Mahi, or Common Dolphinfish, as its subject on

a large scale.

Andrew Frazer

Frazer is a Western Australian illustrator, hand-

letterer, designer and artist based in Bunbury.

He is also Creative Director of Six Two Three

Zero, a Bunbury based initiative that uses

street art as a catalyst for urban development

and social change by bringing communities

together in conversation and creative

inspiration, including through their recent street

art program Re.Discover. He has exhibited

across Western Australia, including his solo

show at Sugarman in Margaret River.

With a passion for story-telling, Frazer’s

pieces engage audiences on a personal level:

welcoming the viewer into a conversation on

shared human emotions such as pain, hope,

despair, redemption and contentment. Frazer’s

work for PUBLIC is no exception. Entitled, Not

All Pain Is Bad, the artist focuses on notions of

self-discovery: when choosing selfishness over

generous living I have discovered the pain of

loneliness. [I am] grateful for this pain as it has

shown [me] that this life is too beautiful not to

be shared.1”

Anya Brock

This ex-fashion industry stalwart-turned-artist’s

work is “neither about the subject

nor the observer... it is about the process.”

A Perth native, Brock is now based in Sydney

while maintaining strong roots with her

hometown, including her pop-up gallery

at MANY 6160 co-operative space in the

reclaimed Myer building in Fremantle. Her

colourful and intense feminine faces and

re-imagined menagerie of animals (from

budgerigars to zebras) are in high-demand,

as the artist is sought after for commissions

throughout Australia.

Her PUBLIC mural in Wolf Lane remains true

to her signature style, created at lightning-fast

speed, and rewarding Perth audiences with a

bright new addition to the under-used car park.

Beastman

Sydney-based artist Beastman’s loveable deities

and instantly recognisable geometric detailing

illustrate his love of beauty within nature. He

has been painting and curating for a number

of years. Fresh from painting in Perth for

PUBLIC, this artist from Sydney staged a solo

show at Backwoods Gallery in Collingwood.

His unique paintings depict a parallel world

of new life, hope and survival. Since being

named ‘Best Artist’ at the 2010 Sydney Music,

Arts & Culture (SMAC) Awards, Beastman has

been in high demand throughout Australia and

internationally. In addition, Beastman curates

the East Editions home wares collection that

chooses artists to interpret their works through

limited editions of functional objects and three-

dimensional works.

Following his 2012 debut collaboration with

FORM for the Living Walls initiative,he returned

for PUBLIC to collaborate with fellow Eastern

states based artist, Vans the Omega. A

celebration of colour in the Murray Street Car

Park outdoor gallery, their wall is “inspired by

our individual bodies of work, blended together

organically.2”

Clare McFarlane

Clare McFarlane has a Masters and an Honours

Degree in Fine Art from Curtin University

of Technology, where she also completed a

Graduate Diploma in Cultural Heritage. She has

Ever

Argentine artist, Ever, has been painting the

Buenos Aires streets since he was a teenager.

His initially letter-based graffiti style reflected his

youth and focus on hip-hop culture. Inspired by

a trip to Paris in the early 2000s, and meeting

fellow Argentine painter, Jaz, with whom he

has shared a studio since 2003, Ever began

to seriously develop the sophisticated work

now being produced on walls and in gallery

exhibitions worldwide.

For PUBLIC, the artist participated in all aspects

of the program: collaborating with Gaia on

a mural in a West Leederville underpass and

mentoring local students; producing a highly

visible piece at Central Institute of Technology

in Northbridge, as well as collaborating in the

Pilbara with Remed.

Ever’s piece in Northbridge, entitled Migration,

is inspired by “the movement of people through

mind, body and culture.” The female figure

is wrapped in the Australian flag and has

deposited a thought in the form of the artist’s

signature ‘thought clouds’ near a door.

Gaia

Although the youngest participant in PUBLIC,

American artist Gaia brought a wealth of

experience. Only three years out of his

graduation from Maryland Institute College of

Art, Gaia has exhibited in galleries throughout

Europe and the United States, undertaken

residencies in Africa and Asia, and has painted

walls in cities worldwide. His work explores

powerful social commentary and intricate place

histories. He also has a curatorial role in “Open

Walls Baltimore”with fellow Baltimore artist

Nanook, a festival to engage and revitalise a

disused space in their native city.

Gaia’s mural for PUBLIC explores Perth’s ecology

and infrastructure past and present, interspersed

with iconic Western Australian identities who

have influenced the city’s development.

Hurben

Hurben, a member of West Australian art

collective trio ‘ololo,’ has been painting since

he was a teenager. Like many PUBLIC artists,

he began with traditional graffiti styles before

progressing to more conceptual work. The

artist’s mission is to create a conversation,

engage and inspire through his work. Since

the locally renowned Condor Tower Car Park

project, organised by ololo in 2009, Hurben has

been producing his work for mass consumption

both on the streets and in the gallery or private

realm and most recently completed an interior

installation for Bar de Halcyon.

Hurben’s mural for PUBLIC in Wolf Lane

presents a contrast to his earlier work in

the same laneway. Telepathy suggests that

“As the hardware we use to connect to one

another advances, we discard the objects of

the past that once connected us. [It] presents

telepathy as a mass-market product affordable

to everyone; the phone box has become the

victim of redundancy.”

Hyuro

Argentinean-born, Valencia-based artist Hyuro

has been painting on public walls for only a

few years. Her prolific, character-based work

is in very high demand appearing throughout

the streets of Europe, the Americas and now

Australia. Originally, her fine art works took

more traditional forms. However, after meeting

street artist Escif she was seduced by the

medium and visibility of public walls as well

as the greater vehicle for communication it

provided with the viewer. Hyuro allows her

work to speak for itself: “[it] speaks better than

my words, and the interpretation of it will be

inside each person that stands [before] it.3”

Her work generally is informed by the human

condition and her own personal experiences,

with common themes of identity, place,

emotion and freedom, often employing

quotidian female characters as commonplace

heroines.

Ian Mutch

A Western Australian designer, artist and

illustrator, Mutch is a freelance graphic

designer and painter in the state’s South West.

He co-produces Kingbrown Magazine: a

hybrid book, magazine, art zine periodical

which has gained cult status and global

acclaim. In addition to his own periodical, the

artist’s illustration work has featured in major

publications including Monster Children,

Oyster and Desktop. Moreover, Mutch has

exhibited extensively in Australia, Singapore,

Bangkok, New York and London.

His artwork has taken him many places but

he is always informed by his immediate

environment for his playful paintings,

characters and drawings, often improvised.

He aims to engage viewers at two levels with

his work: from afar, with the overall thematic

elements, and up-close with its detail and

intricacy.

2501, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Alexis Diaz, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Mahi Mahi, Amok Island, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Andrew Frazer, Perth, 2013. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Anya Brock, Perth, 2013. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Beastman, Perth, 2012. Photographer Phil Hill.

Clare McFarlane, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

ELK, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Gaia, Subiaco, 2014. Photographer Brendan Hutchens.

Hurben, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Ian Mutch, Perth, 2014. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Hyuro, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Ever, Subiaco, 2014. Photographer Brendan Hutchens.


Jaz

Painting under the moniker Jaz since the 1990s,

the Buenos Aires-based artist merges fine and

street art in to beautiful outcomes. Franco

Fasoli was one of the original letter-based graffiti

artists from the South American street arthub.

After finishing art school, the artist created

theatrical sets as a scenographer, before a trip to

Barcelona initiated his return to painting in the

public realm where his work progressed with

sophistication.

Fasoli is fascinated by the ephemeral nature

of painting in public spaces because of the

visibility, environment and experience of

making art in different contexts. Drawing on

his fine art experience, he uses materials such

as asphaltic paint, petrol, and tar as well as self-

made brushes to create layered, watercolour-

like murals that draw the viewer in to the artist’s

struggle with contemporary culture.

Recently named top of Huffington Post’s ’25

Street Artists From Around the World Who Are

Shaking Up Public Art,’ Fasoli painted three

walls for PUBLIC: a Northbridge carpark, the

façade of Hampton Road lodging house, and

a panel in Wolf Lane. His most visible mural at

Hampton Road, entitled “Moving Forward,” is a

testament to the idea of leaving the past behind

as the tiger progresses along the wall leaving his

stripes behind.

Jetsonarama

North Carolina-born wheatpaste artist,

Jetsonarama, came to the medium relatively

late in the game. The artist has been living and

practicing medicine on a Navajo reservation in

Arizona since 1987 but only began translating

characters to serve as broad metaphors for

alienation amongst technological progress and

material abundance.

For PUBLIC, Will’s participated in the Last Chance

Studios collaboration in the Murray Street car

park, and created a solo work in Wolf Lane.

Maya Hayuk

Brooklyn-based artist Maya Hayuk is one of

the most prominent, well-respected names in

mural practice. She has been commissioned

to paint her bright pieces worldwide since the

late 1990s and has shown in global exhibitions

since completing her fine art degree. She

has held various teaching fellowships and

residencies throughout the United States and

was recently invited to paint the prestigious

Bowery Wall in Manhattan, a selective honour.

Hayuk weaves visual information from her

immediate surroundings into her elaborate

abstractions, creating an engaging mix of

referents from popular culture and advanced

painting practices.

With their often geometric compositions,

intricate patterns, and lush colours, her

paintings and massively scaled murals recall

views of outer space, traditional Ukrainian crafts,

airbrushed manicures, and mandalas. Her work

is celebratory and colourful and each piece is

improvised, creating ad hoc beauty informed

by the specific sense of place. The piece she

created for PUBLIC plays with the curves of the

wall at the back of the Wesley Centre in Wolf

Lane, instantly drawing passersby to the piece.

Hayuk created a second work for lodging house

residents at Hampton Road.

Paul Deej

Local artist Paul Deej has been practising in

Perth as a professional artist and illustrator since

2002. Eight years later, he began to apply his

imaginative, pop-culture inspired imagery to

canvases and walls. Since 2010, he has shown

extensively in exhibitions throughout Australia.

In a span of only four years, Deej has held three

successful solo shows in his hometown and his

work can be seen in several mural commissions.

He is also involved in the local hip hop scene,

working with bands to design album covers.

Deej’s PUBLIC mural in the Wolf Lane car park is

representative of his style, including pop-culture

references and urban elements in a background

cityscape.

Phibs

Phibs’ 22 year career has made him one of

Australia’s most prolific street artists. Phibs

began his career in Sydney creating characters

and ‘bombing’ in the late 1980s, growing his

skills through the 90s. In 2000, he moved

to Melbourne and the renowned Everfresh

Studio. Though he attended art school, he

prefers to allow his experience to inform his

multi-dimensional practice of sculptural works,

canvases and walls. A true professional, his

well-loved characters are some of the most

visible and documented within the Melbourne

and Sydney street art scene. Furthermore, his

canvas works have even been acquired by the

National Gallery of Australia.

Phibs signifies the symbiotic: engaging the

urban with the organic. Largely inspired by

nature, his works have spawned a menagerie

of signature characters. For PUBLIC, he created

works at the Ibis Hotel laneway in collaboration

with Vans the Omega, who described “the idea

of peering down the lane way to a snapshot

filled with the strong and recognizable Phibs

styling bursting with colour works [primarily] to

seduce. Then once you are submerged within

the entire surrounding, [the] idea is to engulf the

onlook[er] in a world apart from what they know

or comprehend.”

Phlegm

Welsh-born, London-based artist Phlegm

views himself as a self-publishing, underground

cartoonist. The artist enjoys the ephemeral

nature that painting public walls provides

him along with the individual control offered

through self-publishing his hand-drawn

comics. His recent site-specific show, ‘The

Bestiary,’ at the Howard Griffith gallery in

London’s Shoreditch neighbourhood created a

walkthrough labyrinth of paintings, structures,

walls, and three-dimensional pieces. The show

represented a condensed view of his sketches

and cast of characters from his comic books.

Citing influences of the surreal worlds of artists

like Charles Dellschau and Henry Darger,

Phlegm creates for the viewer vividly portrayed

worlds and their own ‘Creation Myth.’

Since beginning to paint murals on abandoned

buildings and objects in Sheffield UK, Phlegm’s

detailed characters, animals and fantastical

scenes have been in high demand and his

murals have been commissioned throughout

the UK, Europe, US, and Australasia. For PUBLIC

he painted at large scale at the highly visible

Murray Street car park featuring a character

from the ‘Creation Myth’ series; as well as in

the Pilbara, on an abandoned building in Port

Hedland.

Pixel Pancho

Italian artist Pixel Pancho has been

commissioned to paint his ‘anatomical street

robots’ extensively throughout Europe, North

America and Latin America. He is extremely

prolific and has worked in various mediums

from walls and tiles to stickers and found

objects. Pixel cites classical painters, 1950s

film posters, human (and android) anatomy

and fellow street artist Vhils as some of the

main influences on his works. The artist also

places great importance on the capacity for

communication through the internet and

globalism as vital to producing work and gaining

visibility and connectivity as an artist.

His first time in Australia, Pixel Pancho painted

multiple pieces for PUBLIC, including in

the foyer of the King Street Arts Centre, in

Northbridge, on an abandoned building in the

Pilbara, and upon return from the Pilbara, on a

wall in Wolf Lane. The latter piece, entitled ‘The

Future Iron Train,’ was influenced by the artist’s

Pilbara experiences. His wall in Northbridge,

entitled ‘Protection Against the Immigrant in

Myself (Protezione dell’io Immigrante)’ is the

artist’s exploration of the neighbourhood’s

history as centre for newly arrived immigrants,

especially Italians.

Reko Rennie

Melbourne based Reko Rennie is one of

Australia’s leading artists, his work has

been commissioned in Paris, Shanghai and

Washington. Drawing inspiration from his

Kamilaroi heritage, Rennie re-contextualises

ancestral designs and re-claims native symbols

of Australia in contemporary street and gallery

settings, using spray paint, stencil, neon,

sculpture, photography and moving images.

It wasn’t until 2009 that Rennie decided to

devote himself to his passion of provoking

discussion about contemporary Indigenous

culture through artistic practice. As an artist,

Rennie maintains that, “being invited to work

with various Aboriginal communities and doing

workshops with the community around art are

always proud moments for me.”

His bright, geometric works are at once

innovative and interrogative inviting the viewer

in to a conversation not often explored within

the Australian urban art scene. His participation

in PUBLIC encompassed both a residency

focusing on community engagement in the

Pilbara region, and a piece for Wesfarmers for

the foyer of their building in the Perth CBD.

Artist Profiles

the photographs collected from his community

outreach efforts into wheatpaste posters in

the late 2000s. Since 2012, Jetsonorama has

run ‘The Painted Desert Project’, bringing

visiting artists to work in the reservation with

aim of creating resonant positive imagery of

the Navajo community to its public locales for

public enjoyment, greater visibility and to boost

tourism.

As part of the ‘Art in the Pilbara’ component of

PUBLIC, Jetsonarama undertook part one of a

two part residency in rural Pilbara communities

to research, photograph, and expand his work in

an analogous environment to his home practice.

Using photos and stories from the residency,

Jetsonarama translated his work to two Wolf

Lane walls. One piece, Modern Family, was

the artist’s response to observing more African

people than Indigenous Australians in the Perth

CBD, an experience the African-American artist

found interesting.

Jordan Seiler + Heavy Projects

Jordan is an artist / activist born in New

York City and living in Brooklyn. As the

founder of PublicAdCampaign, Jordan’s

work explores the intersection of public and

private media in our shared environments.

Seeing public participation in the curation

of our public spaces as a vital component

to metropolitan health, Jordan seeks to

promote social interaction through artistic

and activist projects that question current

uses of our shared environment, particularly

for commercial media. Through street work,

gallery shows, collaborative civil disobedience,

and the curation of public media projects,

PublicAdCampaign investigates how we may

adorn our cities for greater sociability. The

resulting works from PublicAdCampaign blur

the line between art and activism, and attempt

to define engaged citizenry as we navigate what

it means to be increasingly urban.

Heavy is a tech artist and academic living in

Southern California. Deriving his pseudonym

from a penchant for philosophical discussion,

Heavy has an interdisciplinary background in

technology, academia, and the arts. With a PhD

in Humanities [Intermedia Analysis ] from the

Universiteit van Amsterdam, he has worked

as a university professor and a tech developer

in Anaheim, Prague, and Saint Louis. Since

2007, Heavy has internationally presented his

academic work, which explores augmented

reality, art and semiotics in public space. As

a synthesis of scholarly inquiry and emerging

media, Heavy founded The Heavy Projects to

investigate how the fusion of creativity and

technology can uncover new modes of relaying

ideas. Building upon existing technological

and theoretical frameworks, Heavy creates

innovative interfaces between digital design

and physical worlds in ways that provoke the

imagination and question existing styles of art,

design, and interaction.

Last Chance Studios

Begun in 2008 as a local Perth artist collective

in a shopfront on Northbridge’s William Street,

Last Chance Studios shuttered their studio

space in 2011 due to the growing demand for

the participating artists’ individual work, many

of whose careers have grown nationally and

internationally. Artists regularly involved in

the collective during its four year existence

include founders Daek William and Kid Zoom,

along with Kyle Hughes-Odgers (Creepy), Sean

Morris, Ryan Boserio, Tim Rollin, Martin E. Wills,

and Yohyo.

The Last Chance artists reunited for PUBLIC

to create a ‘family collaboration’ in the Murray

Street car park. One of the walls is a cohesive

display of the six main artists’ individual styles:

Ryan Boserio, Sean Morris, Kid Zoom, Kyle

Hughes-Odgers, Daek William, and Tim Rollin;

while the other is a mash-up of styles with

a tropical theme, and includes later studio

collaborators.

Lucas Grogan

Fine artist Lucas Grogan bases his practice in

Melbourne, though he has exhibited across

Australia. His recognisable work spans

textiles, drawing, painting and murals. He

has undertaken diverse residencies including

at Beijing’s privately owned Red Gate gallery,

Australian fashion label Rittenhouse, and

homewares company Third Drawer Down.

His work generated debate even prior to

completing study at the School of Fine Art

at the University of Newcastle, and the artist

has balanced mural and exhibition work since

his first commissioned mural by Movida in

Melbourne.

Grogan paints walls freehand, often handing

passersby a brush. The inclusion of cheeky,

engaging phrases is a signature element of his

work. He created two murals for PUBLIC: at

Hampton Road, and Arcade 800 in Wolf Lane.

“Dead Posh,” the title of the Wolf Lane piece,

is the artist’s response to Wolf Lane and Perth

stating that he “took into consideration the

surrounding businesses and buildings in relation

to the facade. Hopefully [it] offers the public a lot

of humour and fun”.

Martin E. Wills

Western Australian visual artist Martin E. Wills

has exhibited his work nationally as well as in

the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore

project gallery since 2008. As a member of

prolific former Perth collective, Last Chance

Studios, Wills’ work has been decorating the

streets and buildings throughout the urban area

since the 2009 Condor Tower Car Park project.

His work revolves around improbably coiffed

humanoid characters interacting with their

galactic surroundings. The artist creates these

Jaz, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Jordan Seiler and Heavy Projects, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Jetsonorama, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Last Chance, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Lucas Grogan, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Maya Hayuk, Fremantle, 2014. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Phibs, Perth, 2013. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Phlegm, Port Hedland, 2014. Photographer Brendan Hutchens.

Reko Rennie, South Hedland, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

The Future Iron Train, Pixel Pancho, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Paul Deej, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Martin E Wills, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.


The Yok and Sheryo

The duo of The Yok from Perth and Sheryo from

Singapore have been sharing their lives and

work over several years. Basing their practice

from New York, they have travelled extensively

painting commissions, publishing magazines

and participating in artistic residences. Recently,

the Yok and Sheryo completed a residency

in Yogyakarta, Indonesia working with Batik

fabricators to learn traditional techniques and

apply their contemporary designs to textile

works. These batik textiles, prints, canvas works

and hand-painted ceramics produced in a

North Vietnamese village, formed their recent

exhibition, Nasty Goreng, held at the Turner

Galleries in conjunction with PUBLIC.

Though the pair have evolved their artistic

practices seamlessly together, they maintain

their own individual practices. Singaporean

Sheryo’s recognisable, “imperfect gnarly

characters that are calming to disoriented

souls,”5 adorn walls throughout Asia, North

America, Europe and Australia. The Yok,

co-founder of aforementioned Kingbrown

Magazine, creates his characters globally stating:

“if the artwork produced by [myself] ever came

to life, it would be a fantastic army of eccentric,

moustached, bike riding Gargoyle-esque

creatures who may or may not have connections

with Australian bushrangers.”6

In addition to the Nasty Goreng exhibition, the

Yok and Sheryo participated in PUBLIC painting

a four panelled wall in the Murray Street car park

and a mural at the Turner Galleries carpark in

Northbridge.

Remed

French artist Remed, now based in Madrid

“make[s] rhymes with colours, shapes and

sounds to express emotion, feeling, or the

evolution of thought. [He] paints as you write a

diary, a notebook of inventions, or philosophical

essay. Art is for [him] the sincere blend of

science and Soul.4” He has been painting for

public consumption steadily for nearly a decade

and his work is highly regarded throughout

the public art community. He originally came

to mural painting through his desire to exhibit

his highly polished work to a larger audience.

Flowing, graphic and highly researched, Remed

endeavours to evoke the nature, history and

philosophy of each location’s surrounding

environment.

For PUBLIC, Remed created a beautiful work on

an abandoned building in the Pilbara, informed

by his powerful experience learning about

Indigenous communities. He also created a

sketch animation shown during PUBLIC House.

ROA

Modern-day urban naturalist, Belgian artist ROA

has been painting his large-scale depictions of

animals on public walls for more than a decade.

His lifelike creatures are in high demand taking

the artist around the globe. His exhibition work

is site-specific, informed by the found objects

he sources from each location. The artist’s main

body of work focuses on documenting the native

fauna of the places he visits re-establishing them

within the habitats they may have lost due to

urban expansion.

After his first solo exhibition at the FORM

gallery in 2011 in addition to his residency in

the city and Pilbara, ROA returned to Perth for

PUBLIC. ROA painted the largest wall of the

festival, a work entitled “Infinitas,” depicting a 24

metre tall, finely detailed serpent in an infinite

loop. The piece takes inspiration from three

aspects: the ancient mythological symbol of the

Ouroboros (the serpent devouring its own tail),

the infinity symbol, and the Rainbow Serpent of

Indigenous culture.

Ryan Boserio

Originally from Perth, Ryan Boserio is a

contemporary artist, illustrator and designer

who works in multiple mediums from canvas

to film, on walls and within digital platforms.

Boserio was previously a member of the Last

Chance Studios artist collective, now based in

Melbourne. His ethereal, far-fetched work has

been commissioned for walls throughout Perth

as well as for numerous collaborations with

brands such as Converse, Becks, and Absolut.

Boserio’s solo piece for PUBLIC is a fresh

reworking of an original piece in the same

location behind Arcade 189 in Northbridge.

Entitled ‘Faces,’ Boserio’s new wall has taken

inspiration from “the nature of diversity in

Northbridge- both good and bad and how

important that diversity is.” In addition, the artist

worked alongside his former Last Chance studio

partners to collaborate on two walls in the

Murray Street car park hub.

SHRINK

Based in Perth, Dutch born artist SHRINK

has a background in graphic design and

illustration. His work is heavily character-based

and often incorporates vibrantly coloured

designs intended to transport the viewer on

a continuous journey of rediscovery. Highly

involved in the up and coming visual arts scene

in Perth, the artist has recently been asked

to coordinate the Art Direction for this year’s

Beaufort Street Festival.

SHRINK has begun to showcase his work in

exhibitions, digital platforms and now on the

streetscape. His wall for the Secret Garden Cafe

in Wolf Lane is entitled “Garden Ghouls,” and

references the “mysteries of the garden as a

child, where imagination runs wild and anything

is possible.”

Stormie Mills

Using a limited colour palette, celebrated

Perth native Stormie Mills has been creating

his iconic characters worldwide since the

mid-1980s. His character-driven work reflects

the artist’s constant study of the human

condition. Though he has travelled extensively

for commissions and exhibitions, Mills bases

himself from his hometown where he produces

work exploring emotions and desires at the core

of humanity. A highly collected artist, using

unique materials he incorporates in to his works

including aerosol, graffiti remover and paint

mixed with dirt. These materials comment on

the transience and ephemeral nature of Perth’s

street art scene, communicated through his

masterful layering technique.

A strong advocate for and supporter of PUBLIC,

Mills painted a memento mori on a beautifully

decaying wall entitled ‘The Equilibrium’ in the

Murray Street car park. The piece depicting

two of his iconic characters is “based on the

quote ‘life goes on.’ It came from the physical

condition of the wall itself – that had seen many

years and no doubt many things.” Mills also

created a second work in Wolf Lane, a figure

whose open cape invites viewers to embrace

and be photographed with the character.

Trevor Richards

Born in Merredin in 1954 and attaining

an Associateship in Fine Art from Curtin

University and a Masters in Fine Art from

the University of Western Australia, Trevor

Richards is one of Western Australia’s most

senior abstract painters. He has held twenty

seven solo exhibitions, most recently in Perth,

Canberra and Paris, and participated in more

than sixty group exhibitions since 1984.

He is a founding member of the Australian

Centre for Concrete Art, designing the

collective’s second project on Market Street,

Fremantle, in 2002, and has since undertaken

numerous interventions in architectural spaces

across Western Australia, and in Belgium and

Switzerland. His work is represented in the

collections of the National Gallery of Australia,

Artbank, the Art Gallery of Western Australia,

Australian Capital Equity, Holmes a Court, the

University of Western Australia and the City of

Fremantle, as well as numerous other national

public and private collections, in addition

to the Bank Sparkasse and Daimler Chrysler

Collections in Germany.

The work he painted on the façade of the Turner

Gallery in conjunction with Dear William and

PUBLIC is entitled ‘Salve.’ The distinctive design

was created from a stone-paving pattern found

in the portico of a hostel in the historic town of

New Norcia.

Vans the Omega

Based in Adelaide, Vans the Omega’s work is in

demand throughout Australia. Like many street

artists, he began in his youth in the early 1990s

starting with letter-based aerosol works.

His style has since evolved from complex

lettering to intricate patterning and blocking,

drawing influence from travels, architecture,

ancient scripts, nature, and balance. The artist

recently held two shows in Sydney, released hand

painted furniture with East Editions homewares,

and completed a collaboration with Adidas.

At PUBLIC , he collaborated with Phibs and

Beastman for the artworks at Ibis Hotel laneway

and in the Murray Street car park.

Both collaborations are characteristic pieces

for Vans, who paints organically with balance

and movement in mind. The massive range of

aerosol colours Vans employs work well with

Beastman’s colourful blocking:“Inspired by our

individual bodies of work, blended together

organically through colour, geometry, balance,

precision and movement.” Furthermore, Vans’

focus on organic movement in his work plays

off the pastel creatures that are characteristic for

Phibs so that the message conveyed was, “Where

a building offers windows, we offer new worlds

to view from, drawing one eye in and around and

through space. Beauty and joy are a big part of

my life [and] I try to convey that in my work.”

VJZOO

VJZOO, a creative partnership of Jasper Cook

and Kat Black, lead the way in VJ and live video

performance art in Western Australia. With a

background in photography, painting, and film-

making, the pair met in art school where their

collaborations began, using newly developed

video tools to inform their creative practice.

Their live performances and VJ courses have

been in demand globally, and they have worked

with diverse groups from musicians and

dancers to circus performers and DJs. They

have undertaken commissions for various

festivals and Public Art projects and their work

now increasingly explores highly visible urban

and public space opportunities for live video

performance, interactive projection and multi-

media work that engages a range of audiences.

For PUBLIC the pair created an interactive

installation during PUBLIC House. The

installation featured the iconic Fairlight CVI

(Computer Video Instrument), an early video

synthesiser developed in Australia in the

1980s and influential in music and video

collaborations. The installation engaged

audiences and passers-by, reflecting their

silhouettes and movement in a dynamic

projection work.

Yandell Walton

Yandell Walton is a video, multi-media and

projection installation artist based in Melbourne.

She has regularly exhibited her innovative art

works in galleries and non-traditional spaces

throughout Australia and internationally,

including a commission and residency at New

York’s The Gershwin Hotel, an installation

and award at the Digital Graffiti Festival in

Florida, and various installations at arts festivals

throughout Australia. As well as continuing

to develop her studio practice, Walton has

been working creatively with youth and

community groups on collaborative community

development projects and mentoring programs.

For PUBLIC, the industrious Walton created

two ephemeral installations: “Human Effect

2013-2014” and “Transitions 2014.” Her digital

projections mounted in Wolf and Munster Lanes

during the PUBLIC House festivities were unique

aspects of the PUBLIC program that added

stunning interactive digital imagery intended

to engage passersby with ideas of sustainability

and impermanence within their architectural

contexts. Through her artistic practice, she

explores what constitutes human experience

through emotional response to our world,

human impact, and impermanence.

Artist Profiles

DEAR WILLIAM ARTISTS

Abdul Abdullah

Abdul Abdullah graduated from Curtin

University of Technology in 2008, immediately

launching into a highly visible career. In 2009

he received the ‘Highly Commended’ in the

National Youth Self Portraiture Prize at the

National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. In 2011

he was a recipient of Kickstarter art funding for

the 2012 Next Wave Festival, was selected as

a finalist in the 2011 Archibald Prize, and won

the Blake Prize for Human Justice. In 2013 he

collaborated with his brother, Abdul-Rahman

Abdullah on Project HOME for Underbelly Arts

festival in Sydney, and had his portrait of boxer

Anthony Mundine selected as a finalist in the

Archibald Prize. He was also selected as an

Archibald finalist in 2014. His work is included

in the collections of the National Gallery of

Australia, the University of Western Australia,

Murdoch University, The Islamic Museum of

Australia, and The Bendigo Art Gallery.

In his work for the Dear William component

of PUBLIC, Abdullah delved into aspects of the

Muslim experience in Australia – a common

theme throughout his artistic practice – as

well as “ideas concerning identity in terms of

‘otherness,’[hoping] to question adversarial

attitudes that potentially hinder or diminish

opportunities for intercultural dialogue.7”

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah completed a Bachelor

of Arts in Fine Art from Curtin University of

Technology in 2012. In 2013 he held his lauded

first major solo exhibition, Maghrib.

Remed, Roebourne, 2014. Photographer Sharmila Wood.

Ryan Boserio, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Stormie Mills, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Trevor Richards, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

VJ Zoo, Perth, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Yandell Walton, Melbourne, 2014. Photographer Lauren Dunn.

The Yok and Sheryo, Perth, 2014. Photographer Like Shirlaw.

‘Someone Else’s King and Someone Else’s Countr’y, Abdul Abdullah, 2014.

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist.Vans the Omega, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

Infinitas, ROA, Perth, 2014. Photographer David Dare Parker.

Shrink, Perth, 2014. Photographer Matt Biocich.


Artist Profiles

Following this work he produced collaborative

exhibition, Project HOME, with his brother

Abdul Abdullah for the Underbelly Arts Festival.

Recently, he was announced as an inaugural

recipient of Emerging Artists Program funding

from Artsource, as well as being selected as

a finalist in the Blake Prize, Substation, and

FishersGhost Art Prizes. Abdullah was the

Western Australian recipient of the 2013 Qantas

Foundation Encouragement of Australian

Contemporary Art Award.

His participation in Dear William was a digital

projection of the moon, focusing on the

“relevance of lunar cycles as a common basis

of the Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu religious

calendars. As a cyclical motif, the moon has

represented the passage of time throughout

human history, relating the individual

experience of observation to a perpetual

process...8” The artist used his digital projection

to re-examine the “pervasive nature of the

moon in an urban environment,” in order to

create dialogue on the “subjective responses

to a universal presence.”

Casey Ayres

Casey Ayres produces work across a number

of disciplines, including photography, print,

sculpture, and video, investigating and often

subverting the iconography and rituals of

masculinity. Ayres graduated from Curtin

University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts

(Fine Art) and completed his first class

Honours in 2010. In 2011, as part of The

Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (GACPS)

collaboration, he was named as a participant

in Next Wave Festival’s prestigious Kickstarter

mentorship program. Ayres held two solo

exhibitions at OK Gallery in 2011 and 2013,

and he has contributed work to a number

of group exhibitions locally, nationally,

and internationally as part of the Pingyao

International Photography festival. His

work is represented in a number of private

collections andhas recently been acquired

by Deutsche Bank.

In response to the common uses of space in the

Central William Street Precinct, Ayres created

work exhibited during Dear William that was

intended to bring these ‘spaces in between’ to

light. By documenting the spaces, places, and

people of William Street in order to present

them to the transient commuters in hopes of

encouraging them to look and notice this ‘space

in between’ he hoped to pique the interests of

William Street’s temporary inhabitants.9

Nathan Beard

Nathan Beard is an interdisciplinary artist whose

recent work investigates the myriad influences

of his Thai-Australian cultural heritage alongside

esoteric pop culture iconography. His work

explores and deconstructs the tensions and

shifting realignments between East/West,

highbrow/lowbrow,and centre/periphery.

Graduating with first class Honours from Curtin

University of Technology in 2010, Beard has

exhibited nationally since then, most notably as

part of The Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

(GACPS). In 2012 he was a recipient of ArtStart

funding from the Australia Council for the

Arts,and in 2013 participated in a residency at

Speedy Grandma gallery in Bangkok, Thailand.

In 2013 he was the recipient of JUMP funding

from the Australia Council for the Arts, allowing

him to undertake mentorship from iconic Thai

artist Michael Shaowanasai.

His participation in PUBLIC through Dear

William was comprised of a series of interviews

and reflections entitled ‘Video Home

System,’focusing on the way that commercial

enterprises can satisfy the specific nostalgic or

cultural needs of the local Thai community by

providing easy access to Thai entertainment

and brands. The work was informed by footage

shot on-location at two prominent Thai video

and grocery stores in Northbridge.10

Nigel Bennet

Nigel Bennet is a photographic artist based in

Europe. His photographs have been exhibited

across Australasia, Europe, and North America,

his short films screened at the CannesFilm

Festival, and he has undertaken residency

projects in Colombia, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the

United Kingdom. In addition to numerous other

awards and prizes, in 2011 he was awarded a

Santo Foundation Individual Artist Grant and

won the Conscientious Portfolio Competition;

in 2012 he won the Onward Compe 12

international photography competition and

was awarded a bursary by the Queen Elizabeth

Scholarship Trust; and in 2013 he was awarded

grants by the AsianCultural Council, New York,

USA and the Oppenheim – John Downes

Memorial Trust, London, UK.

Bennet undertook a residency and photographic

project as part of Dear William. From March-April

2014, he worked to create a kind of virtual

folk-museum of the Central William Street

Precinct in collaboration with local residents:

employing aural, textual, and photographic

research methods to map the local psyche.

The artist had a pop-up studio space open to

passersby during the week of PUBLIC which

displayed some of the photographic works

from his William Street residency to engage the

community to share local histories, opinions

and anecdotes relevant to the area in question..11

1 Source: Andrew Frazer, artist response, email message to Margot L. Strasburger (19 May 2014)2 Source: Beastman artist response, email message to Amy Plant (29 May 2014)3 Source: Hyuro artist response, email message to Margot L. Strasburger (4 June 2014)4 “Biography,” Remed personal website. Site accessed 12 June 2014, http://remed.es/web/biography/5 Sheryo - Artist Info, Personal Website. Site accessed 11 June 2014, http://www.sheryoart.com/about/6 The Yok – Artist CV, Personal Website. Site accessed 11 June 2014, http://theyok.com/content/Bio/7 Abdul Abdullah, artist’s statement, December 20138 Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, artist’s statement, December 20139 Casey Ayres, artist’s statement, December 201310 Nathan Beard, artist’s statement, March 201411 Nigel Bennet, artist’s statement, May 2014

Casey Ayres, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer Jean Paul Horre.

Video Home System, Nathan Beard, 2014. Photographer Bewley Shaylor.

Mimi Mills/Anonymous 3/Riccardo Carrano, Nigel Bennet, 2014.

Jordan Seiler, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

72 73PUBLICATION | 2014 2014 | PUBLICATION

Map

Completed Artworks

PERTH CITY AND NORTHBRIDGE

ARTWORKLOCATIONS

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1.REKO RENNIE2.MAYA HAYUK3.ALExIS DIAz4.HYURO5.ELK6.JORDAN SEILER + HEAvY PROJECTS7.PIxEL PANCHO

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Join us as a

PUBLIC Patron

FORM is working toward the next evolution

of PUBLIC in 2015. We invite you to join us in

shaping our public: our public realm, our public

life and our communities.

Get involved as we research future sites

for PUBLIC, where a mix of metropolitan

and regional locations will be selected. We

welcome your ideas on where the world’s

best talent might make their mark in Western

Australia.

Or make your PUBLIC contribution with

essential financial support to realise this

vision. As Bruce Mau noted: “Real innovation

in design, or any other field, happens in

context. That context is usually some form

of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank

Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao

because his studio can deliver it on budget.

The myth of a split between “creatives” and

“suits” is what Leonard Cohen calls a ‘charming

artefact of the past.’”

Contact Lynda Dorrington or Rebecca

Eggleston at [email protected] to join your

energy to the efforts behind PUBLIC.

“Congratulations Lynda and to the FORM

team. Last week’s events brought an

amazing buzz around town and the ongoing

impacts are huge for Perth – dare I say

‘transformational’. We owe you.”

Chris Melsom, Principal Architect, Hassell Studio,

Perth

“I’ve seen a significant shift in the art scene

in WA and I truly believe FORM has been

a catalyst for a lot of the positive change

and PUBLIC is just one of many examples

of the respect and attention Form attracts.

I’ve always been impressed with FORM’s

professionalism and ability to deliver socially

conscious projects that have enhanced

the cultural fabric of WA and help build its

reputation as a source of innovation and

progression in the arts. ... I have had some

dealings with other arts organisations both

in WA and on the East coast and I have to

say that I’m proud to be associated with

FORM and the standard you set.”

Chris Nixon, Illustrator and FORM member, Perth

“Man, PUBLIC has made us really excited

to be living in Perth these last couple of

weeks. Waiting for a coffee lately, you look

up, and there’s a giant figure leering down

at you from the Central TAFE building.

Sitting in traffic, suddenly notice a killer

python wrapped around a multi-level

carpark! Large-scale urban artworks from

international, national and local artists

have been hitting Perth’s walls as part of

PUBLIC - shout outs to FORM for making it

all happen.”

thethousands.com.au

“PUBLIC was the largest, most professional,

generous, organised and well curated urban

art project I have ever been a part of. Big

thanks to all those at FORM for inviting

me over from Sydney to be involved, I am

baffled as to how many walls you were able

to get permission to paint, and have them

all painted in a concentrated period of time.

Well done!”

Beastman, Artist, Sydney

“FORM [and PUBLIC] is the best festival ever!

My mind and heart [are] still in Australia!”

Ever, Artist, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Map

Connecting Globally

2501 ITALY

www.2501.org.uk

ABDUL ABDULLAH PERTH

abdulabdullah.com

ABDUL-RAHMAN ABDULLAH PERTH

abdulrahmanabdullah.com

ALEXIS DIAZ PUERTO RICO

cargocollective.com/alexisdiaz

AMOK ISLAND PERTH

www.amokisland.com

ANDREW FRAZER PERTH

adfdesigns.com.au

ANYA BROCK PERTH

www.anyabrock.com

BEASTMAN SYDNEY

www.beastman.com.au

CASEY AYRES PERTH

christopherfordwalken.blogspot.de

CLARE MCFARLANE PERTH

www.facebook.com/claremcfarlaneart

ELK MELBOURNE

www.elkstencils.com

EVER ARGENTINA

eversiempre.com

GAIA USA

gaiastreetart.com

HEAVY PROJECTS USA

www.theheavyprojects.com

HURBEN PERTH

HYURO ARGENTINA

www.hyuro.es

IAN MUTCH PERTH

www.ianmutch.com

JAZ ARGENTINA

www.francofasoli.com.ar

JETSONORAMA USA

speakingloudandsayingnothing.blogspot.com.au

JORDAN SEILER USA

www.republiclab.com/projects

LAST CHANCE PERTH

www.facebook.com/pages/LAST-

CHANCESTUDIOS/54892549388

LUCAS GROGAN MELBOURNE

www.lucasgrogan.com

MARTIN E WILLS PERTH

www.martinewills.com

MAYA HAYUK USA

www.mayahayuk.com

NATHAN BEARD PERTH

beardworks.wordpress.com

NIGEL BENNET UK / USA

www.nigelbennet.com

PAUL DEEJ PERTH

www.pauldeej.com

PHIBS SYDNEY

www.phibs.com

PHLEGM UK

www.phlegmcomics.com

PIXEL PANCHO ITALY

www.flickr.com/photos/pixelpancho/

REKO RENNIE MELBOURNE

rekorennie.com

REMED FRANCE

remed.es/web

ROA BELGIUM

roaweb.tumblr.com

SHERYO SINGAPORE/USA

www.sheryoart.com

SHRINK PERTH

www.facebook.com/kneadingashrink

STORMIE MILLS PERTH

stormiemills.com

THE YOK PERTH/USA

www.theyok.com

TREVOR RICHARDS PERTH

trevorrichards.iinet.net.au

YANDELL WALTON MELBOURNE

www.yandellwalton.com

VANS THE OMEGA ADELAIDE

vanstheomega.com

VJ ZOO Perth

vjzoo.com

PUBLIC Salon exhibition opening, FORM Gallery, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

76 77PUBLICATION | 2014 2014 | PUBLICATION

FORM would like to thank the all those who

have made PUBLIC’s launch in 2014 possible,

most importantly the artists, our sponsors,

collaborators, volunteers and the public – YOU!

FORM gratefully acknowledges the support of:

FORM would also like to thank the volunteers

or collaborators who assisted with the delivery

of this program.

Thank You!

Produced by FORM

Edited and compiled by Rebecca Eggleston

Designed by Folklore Brand Storytelling

Printed by Scott Print

Copyright 2014

All rights reserved. Copyright for written content

and this publication are held by FORM unless

otherwise noted. Copyright for artworks resides

with the artist. Copyright for photographic images

is held by the individual photographer. No part of

this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted in any form without

prior permission from the publisher.

FORM is an independent non-profi t that

develops and leverages creativity for community

transformation and cultural development in

Western Australia. We believe that the best most

vibrant places to live are the ones that nurture

creativity, showcase cultural diversity, insist on

quality and are shaped with people in mind.

+61 (0)8 9226 2799

[email protected]

www.form.net.au

public.form.net.au

Presented by:

Major Sponsors: Supporters and collaborators:

FORM gratefully acknowledges the support of Turner Galleries, The Margaret River Chocolate Company,Eat Drink Perth, and the City of Subiaco.

William Street Artists in Residence

Media:

FORM is supported by the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy, and initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments.FORM is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Principal Partner of FORM andthe 100 Hampton Road Project

8- “Urban artists to take over Department of Housing walls,” Department of Housing website, April 4, 201414- Anne Gartner, “Belgian Chocolate Artistry,” In My Community Online, April 1, 2014


Rap Panther, The Yok and Sheryo, Northbridge, 2014. Photographer David Dare Parker.

Hyuro, Perth, 2014. Photographer Luke Shirlaw.

PUBLICATION - FORM Building a State of Creativity

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