The Melbourne Stencil Festival - The Underground
The Melbourne Stencil Festival is an annual event, which has been running since 2004. It rides on the coat tails of popular street artists like Ha-Ha, whose works are always a part of the exhibition and deservingly so. Time and again Ha-Ha has contributed complex composition pieces, with a depth exhibiting not only his curious and well-read nature but also a deeply Australian identity. His iconic image of Ned Kelly, without the helmet, featured in this year’s Award Exhibition held at the Yarra Sculpture Space. The works of Drewfunk during opening night had also eloquently carried over both the grassroots aspect of street art, namely aerosol to surface method without the filter of stencils, and the unique cultural styles of Melbourne.
The Festival’s other location was The Underground - a converted car park in Harmsworth Street, Collingwood - it held a film night, workshops and a charity auction at the end of the show.
This year the Underground projects and exhibition has given the festival a new energy. The curator Anna Briers has aptly captured the spirit of the street, which was lacking in the Gallery space. As an evolving space, it filled up during the course of the festival and at its peak it exhibited unanimously the works of new as well as established artists ranging from stencils on canvas and found objects, to sculpture, installations and projections. At its peak, The Underground, successfully carried across the egalitarian aspect of street art and its liberal communication with the public, in a non-obtrusive harmony.
The entire space was consumed with an eclectic array of experiences. Interstate artists Ololo contributed to the show by painting a van. A cubby house structure in one corner with a projection by the artist Elva Carri, acted as a kind of intimate and private space, where parents often found their child who had run off. The size of the location made it possible to get lost in the happenings of one area and be completely unaware of a different project on the other side of the car park. This worked well however, as visitors got a perpetual feeling of activity.
The Underground adequately highlighted the need to remain true to the art form from which the festival stems. The Street Art aspect is undermined somewhat in the Gallery space when some of the exhibiting artists admit to having never painted on the streets, arguably the true home of Melbourne’s stencil art. This aspect is important, as the street is the first point of contact, there the works are politicised, criticised and admired within the context of their competition to the signs of consumerism. They exist outside it, which by no fault of the Festival, they cannot do in the Gallery where they are the commodities.
The Festival’s other location was The Underground - a converted car park in Harmsworth Street, Collingwood - it held a film night, workshops and a charity auction at the end of the show.
This year the Underground projects and exhibition has given the festival a new energy. The curator Anna Briers has aptly captured the spirit of the street, which was lacking in the Gallery space. As an evolving space, it filled up during the course of the festival and at its peak it exhibited unanimously the works of new as well as established artists ranging from stencils on canvas and found objects, to sculpture, installations and projections. At its peak, The Underground, successfully carried across the egalitarian aspect of street art and its liberal communication with the public, in a non-obtrusive harmony.
The entire space was consumed with an eclectic array of experiences. Interstate artists Ololo contributed to the show by painting a van. A cubby house structure in one corner with a projection by the artist Elva Carri, acted as a kind of intimate and private space, where parents often found their child who had run off. The size of the location made it possible to get lost in the happenings of one area and be completely unaware of a different project on the other side of the car park. This worked well however, as visitors got a perpetual feeling of activity.
The Underground adequately highlighted the need to remain true to the art form from which the festival stems. The Street Art aspect is undermined somewhat in the Gallery space when some of the exhibiting artists admit to having never painted on the streets, arguably the true home of Melbourne’s stencil art. This aspect is important, as the street is the first point of contact, there the works are politicised, criticised and admired within the context of their competition to the signs of consumerism. They exist outside it, which by no fault of the Festival, they cannot do in the Gallery where they are the commodities.
End.
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