Small street art, on paper, photocopied and glued, has slowly changed the way people think about Melbourne’s laneways over the last few years. As A.I. threatens original art and writing, paste-up art is pushing back.
Not Flashy, No Fumes
It’s not flashy, spray-painted, signed with a big tag or dominating. There are no fumes. You won’t see male Gen Z lining up in their trainers and backpacks at the walls.
In fact you won’t see anyone at all. It’s glued in a flash and the artist, gone in a flash, too.
Individual flowers, enlarged, hand-painted and placed in rows on Baptist Place, face a small girl in long socks, reaching for a blue planet. Much of Melbourne’s paste-up is message-driven.
Handwritten, Custom Stickers
Handwritten, custom-designed stickers hold messages like ‘Dance to your own music.’
And it can be funny, too.
A Sixties cartoon romance couple exchange thought balloons.
‘Those long romantic letters suddenly all made sense!’
‘They’re from Chat GPT!’
Another sticker: “Wait…let me over-think this.”
Vegemite has become My Mate. “Ensuring every day is a happy day.’
A fox advises, “I’ve got a joke about trickle-down economics, but 99% of you wouldn’t get it.”
Dogs and Cats
Dogs and cats (but none of Banky’s rats) abound. The aesthetic in Melbourne is often Frankie magazine-Girlie.
A big kitten has a message. ‘May your heart be reflected in your actions.’
There’s a woodcut with a black swan reminding visitors tht in 1788 Elizabeth Street (where they are now) was a river.
Bushfires and climate emergency are represented, along with birds ‘in solidarity with the wild.’
Psychedelic cats in totem-pole sequence stare at Melbourne, while Melbourne stares back.
A one-off robin, hand-painted on paper, with a ladybird in its beak, is one of the few bits of nature in the concrete jungle city.
No cans left behind, either. The rain fades the paper over time but it’s left there as part of the art. Eventually this too will vanish.
Melbourne Tops World Street Art
Still, there is room for large-scale (huge, towering) painting too. In fact, Melbourne now leads the Street Art Cities database with 3662 masterpieces.
Three dedicated Melburnians drove this achievement. Neda Nikolic, Andrew Haysom and Lia Arraiano mapped thousands of murals across Melbourne over two years and made sure the city came first.
Look for – Manda Lane: Known for her paste-up drawings of plants that bring foliage to the city’s lanes.
Night Krawler: N.K. creates black-and-white stencil works with retro-occult themes.
