Alley art in Lockdown

Bicycles line up at the local store
Factories crumble behind rusting iron
Graffiti grows on the railway bridge
Worker in overalls walks on home
– Jumping Fences, View from a Wooden Chair

I have spent a month in Covid lockdown in Melbourne during May/June ’21. Here is some art that I have seen.

Hidden along a cobbled path near Allard Lane are paintings of a future world. A field, an astronaut, waves, a boat and a place where the rational meets a world where creatures eat each other. Vibrant colours on a galvanised iron fence. The Cannibals depict a dystopian world as a faetal woman takes refuge in the stomach of a beast.

Along the concrete canal that is Moonee Ponds Creek is striking column art contracted by the local council. White Ibis fly on green freeways polls. Purple dragon flies adorn another column. The chief artist puts final touches to the green column while his assistants finish off the scene.

Nearby are Jeff Kennett’s red and yellow cheese sticks. A red mouse satirizes the former Premier’s plunge into modernism. Developers announce that people can only prosper, as a TOLL truck races west along the M2 and a woman plays soccer with her dog in the canal.

Comms towers, indigenous to the area, perch above remnant bushland in Royal Park.

Alas all the artists remain anonymous.

[Click on images to enlarge and see slides, play Vincent by Don McLean as you watch]