WA Toady announces that Maylands has gone “wall mural crazy”. The curator, the wonderfully named Leo Flavel surprisingly does seem to be in agreement with my point that those sponsored by government or grants are overwhelmingly shit…
“All the government and grant-funded artwork getting painted recently can be very watered-down and tailored,” Flavel said. “The pieces are better than a brick wall, but most people don’t realise the artists who pop up doing them aren’t in murals or street art as specialists, but are grant-hoppers on a bandwagon. Once the mural fad is over, those guys will go and do something else.”
Well yes. If your council is paying for it will be crap. And I don’t agree that a blank wall is always worse as previously discussed. But he seems to miss the point that the craze is already over. Long over. And the result of getting agreement from everyone involved will have exactly the same watering down effect as the council paying for it. It needs to be a piece that shopkeepers, councillors and grant dispensers (YWLs?) hate. Or the street art critique pictured. That’s what would bring people from outside to visit Maylands, not pieces that have been given the thumbs up by a coffee shop owner.
One TWOP connection is that our old friend Mark “for the want of a ladder” Shime is one of the artists. A lifetime ago that seems. And despite Teh Flav’s enthusiasm, the pieces he has curated are overwhelmingly crap.
The Worst of Perth 
Just had a look at the gallery. Shime’s, sadly is a very poor Jimi Hendrix. There’s even a Jim Morrison. Overwhelmingly terrible.
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Jimi kneeling in front of burning guitar? Clever way of avoiding any ladder requirement.
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Are these all painted by granddads? Wouldn’t the expectation be radical young white lesbians? What utter pieces of crap.
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Was it done by artists, or just old duffers looking for the MG shop?
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Maybe it’s Lenny Kravitz?
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Motörhead won’t be the same without him.
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all they need now is a larger-than-life Marilyn-fucking-Monroe
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Beatles crossing 8th Ave
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Yes.
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Malcolm X passed out with a goon bag on Peninsula Rd
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Although I have asked for pieces that would be hated rather than safe ones given the thumbs up by shopkeeps, I’m not sure about this one. How about Malcolm X being shot by Beyoncé ?
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Cardinal Pell rimming a Labrador.
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Thom Yorke rootin a cash register.
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Malcom Turdbull disappearing in the Burmuda Triangle?
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Last piece of street art I saw in maylands was probably called “dog turd on a footpath” or something similar…
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They are so played that Subiaco will soon start doing them.
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LOL. It’s so sad that such an original piece had to be painted over. Who would have thought. Dude in a trucker cap with a spraycan. So edgy, so new. So shithouse.
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Maybe they can get permission for a Snore-mie Mills piece? or perhaps a priNcess with flowing hair. AND MAYBE SHE’S GOT WOOD NYMPHS IN HER FUCKING HAIR.
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oh, we forgot to ask the building owner.
who are these clowns?
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I love it that they said no.
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There was a heritage listed hotel in Albany that was torched. Does anyone know if there was a new Snore-mie Mills on the side? He was down there scuzzying up the built environment recently.
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we can only dream.
and not heritage listed.
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Abc was claiming heritage. I guess they just meant old.
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The drab grey wall is infinitely better. And what kind of ladder does he call that.
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ok ok guys, fair comment. the assumption that all the owners gave us permission is actually incorrect. 7 wall owners were not shown any concept designs, it was a take it or leave it situation.. Local council were not involved in the decision making process at all, in fact had no idea it was happening. if any of you guys are willing to donate your walls for an image of Colin Barnett being pack raped by meth junkies with barbed strap ons in xxxxxxxxxxxxx im sure i can hook u up with an artist willing to paint it.
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Well that kind of makes it worse. How then did you end up with a Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison? You talk about council sponsorship watering down the street art, but surely Jimi and Jim are as watered down as it is possible to be?
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In regards to the jimi wall I asked Amuck37 if he wanted to paint it and he came up with that concept and asked shime to help him with the characters . again the business owners had no input, it was Lindsay’s wall to bust it up as he saw fit. I actually think amuck is simply a fan
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Well fair enough, but you can see my point can’t you? These are fairly tired and boring themes. As one commenter noted, we’ll get Marilyn Monroe next. I think Shime could have used a little more imagination. We had a conversation on his vanished Perth piece half a decade ago. He could have put in a bit more thought in this case. Isn’t that what street art is about? And if you really have to go Jimi, surely an amazing interpretation is possible. These are more the reason why wall murals are now played.
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Ok point taken , I’m glad I could find the constructive criticism in all this.
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In his xxxxxxxxx??
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I’m not sure The Flav meant to say that. Would be big news though.
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That hasn’t been mentioned much in teh comments, mark my words!
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Not a single che among the cliches.
Howbout junaid thorne holding an m16? Should quickly become a talking point focus of food vans and men in dark shades
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Yes. Yes! No Che no play.
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