Graffiti is a complicated art form. It begins as Tagging. Tagging is the street mark of a defiant kid with a spray can. Her sign. In its truest form it is a personal shout out against the dark, it is furious and subversive, often sadly hateful, linear, painted on the run – literally, and is not designed to be beautiful. It is a stab. It is a signature. A tag. It screams “See me. Don’t forget me. I am not a shadow.” I worked with many of these young taggers in my teaching days and found that the moment I gave them a wall of my classroom to paint on, the subversive tagging became wonderful graffiti. A thing to be proud of. Though graffiti has its roots in tagging, it is not the same.
Downtown graffiti like Hosier Lane is vibrant and joyous. When graffiti is encouraged as an art-form it loses its bitter shallow defiance and becomes brilliant and full and wonderfully complicated. Hosier Lane is one of a couple of lanes in Downtown Melbourne given over entirely to graffiti artists.
A cacophony of colour.
Isn’t it wonderful?
Once I get used to seeing so many people all in one place – I love the big city.
Today we go camping and climbing in the Grampians. It appears that I will have to drink my wine from a rubber cup and eat my pasta and pesto with a plastic spork. And sleep on the ground!! Horrors. This is camping not Glamping.
So I may be out of coverage for a few days, though it is possible we can set up a hot spot and get a message out to you. Then I will have glorious images of the mountains for you. (I hope.)
We get back on Saturday and I begin the long trek home to the farmy (Illinois) on Sunday morning so it will be a fast turn around on the weekend.
Much love
Talk to you in a few days
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
24 responses to “Melbourne: Hosier Lane”
Wow , like being inside a kaleidoscope. Laura
Graffiti is cool. Loved the post. And the comment about your classroom wall. Happy camping!
I’ve just seen so much graffiti and street art now that it fails to make any impression…..the zeitgeist is that everything’s brilliant…we’ve lost the comparative…but have a great time camping…a clear oxymoron:)
I’ve always appreciated tagging/grafitti. Some places are the better for being covered with rebellion in colour and joie de vivrel
Have a lovely time camping. Do they have midges in Australia? That’s the only downside for me of camping in the wild.
Love,
ViV xox
What a novel idea, to allow graffiti. Is it then a problem still in other parts of the city?
Happy camping. Better you than me. I am not a camper.
Bon voyage and Happy Trails to you! Love the graffiti~ cheers!
I hope you’re really enjoying your camping days with the family. Cannot wait to hear what you cooked over the campfire — or is a little hibachi grill too glam? 🙂
How I wish we had something similar to Hosier Lane. I doubt if it would rid neighborhoods of all gang-related tagging — they’re marking territory — but it would make a difference, to be sure.
One of my favourite places in Melbourne to go with my camera 😀