Stencil Festival walking tour of Fitzroy street art
On Sunday 10 August I went to one of the free events on the 2008 Stencil Festival program - a walking tour of various street art sites in Melbourne led by Fitzroy Library’s Amanda and well known local artist Deb. The event was worth attending because the participants learned a lot from Deb about how street artists do their work.
Deb and Amanda started the tour by leading the group of 30-40 people from the Fitzroy Library past the Whitlam Park project on the corner of Napier St and Moor St (opposite the Library) to the works on the corner of Napier and St David Streets.
We went past the corner of Johnston St and Young St and Deb talked about one of her works there, how local artists like to keep an eye on their works and how they come back to touch them up to keep them looking fresh or to redo parts defaced by tags.
On the opposite corner is the wall of the Night Cat. Deb talked about how the wall is looking messy and that there is a plan to do a big new work there in the coming months.
We continued north on Young St and then went down the unnamed laneway that joins another coming off Argyle St. We then looked at the work by Phibs and Deb outside Grill’d and Ministry of Sound on the corner of Kerr St and Brunswick St. We did a quick tour through Kindness Lane that connects Victoria St and Johnston St.
We finished the tour on Rose St, between the corner of Fitzroy St and the Rose St Markets, which is the site of a recent huge work by Deb, Phibs and several other artists.
Deb discussed three broad ways street artists work. The first is illegally by working on a wall without permission. Amanda noted that this is quite common in Fitzroy, because a permit is required for a property owner to legally have artwork done on their property. Sometimes the artist and / or the property owner is not aware of this. Sometimes they do know but don’t care about applying for permission.
The second way is for the artist to work for free for the commissioning property owner. The artist generally is free to complete work with freedom to choose their preferred designs, and the property owner pays for paint. The third is a more traditional commissioned work where the property owner suggests a particular theme or design, pays the artist and also pays for the paint. On her website Deb has different sections for works she defines as her own and as paid commissions.
What was lacking from the tour was organisation. I sent an email from work to RSVP for the tour on Friday afternoon, and asked in my email to be notified to my personal email if I could come or not. I got no reply so I turned up to the event on Sunday and everything was fine. When I got in to work on Monday I found a reply that had been sent on Saturday saying the event was full and had been booked out more than a week before.
In that case, why did the program on the website still list the event as open on the Friday? It should have had BOOKED OUT next to it. Fortunately for me, the’s festival’s disorganisation meant that I didn’t find out I wasn’t supposed to come, and when I did come there was not an overwhelming crowd anyway.
As a guest speaker, Deb did not seem sufficiently supported by the Festival, and didn’t have a planned route. When I spoke to Amanda she also said that she did not know what was supposed to be happening. This is a shame because this was an event with great potential and genuine support from the Library and one of Fitzroy’s most prolific street artists.
Posts you may find relevant and interesting
- new work by Deb and Phibs at the Fitz cafe, 9 November 2008
- graffiti and street art in Fitzroy, 30 October 2008
- WARDLOW Art Residence, 11 August 2008
- Tom Ripon, get a website, 3 July 2008
- the joy of art, 27 April 2007
