gi_influential_art

**INFLUENTIAL ART**

• Home Page • Focus Questions • Artists • Past & Present • Laws • **Influential Art** • Interactive Map • Glossary • Mind Map • Photo Gallery • Bibliography • Reflections • When you think of Melbourne, what do you think of? Is there a defining piece of art work that represents the city? We have researched some of Melbourne's most iconic pieces of art and found out how they came to be so famous and the history behind them.

Some sculptures we believe represent Melbourne are 'Three Business Men Who Brought Their Own Lunches', 'Larry Latrobe', 'Angel' and 'Federation Bells'. When we interviewed David Wilson, a former Melbourne City councillor, he said he didn't think of a specific piece of art that represented Melbourne, but rather of Melbourne's laneways. So we think what art work represents the city comes down to a matter of opinion. We have decided to research a few of Melbourne's famous pieces of street art and also what influences Melbourne's art work as a whole :  Melbourne, as a very multicultural city, has many influences from all around the world. For example one of the artists we researched, Phibs, who is from Sydney, creates graffiti, mainly of an Indian tribal nature.


 * Graffiti-** Graffiti is usually influenced by personal experiences or opinions of the artist. The artist may be influenced by experiences such as where they grew up, the people and artwork around them and how they perceived this through their eyes. Some art work, such as Ghostpatrol's, does not appear to be very stereotypical but rather like something out of a child's book. Graffiti in Melbourne, to us, appears to have many different influences and styles and depends on the artists and their backgrounds.


 * Sculptures-** It's hard to say what has influenced sculptures as a whole because there are too many of them to generalise. A lot of the city's sculptures have no apparent meaning or relevance to its location such as vault (also known as "Yellow Peril") which in the opinion of a lot of the public is too modern and bright for its surroundings at Southbank.


 * Chalk Art-** Chalk artists that we have seen draw everything from abstract perceptions of various areas of the city to famous works of art by well known artists . The artists find inspiration from their surroundings, other artists and even the people around them. Chalk artists have also been known to use celebrity figures and well known people as motivation for their chalk drawings. An example of a chalk artist who does this is Bev Isaac, who draws everything from scenes out of Dr. Seuss' books to Kath and Kim to depictions of nature scenes and the ocean.


 * Buskers-** While out on an excursion we interviewed the live performer, Animus (which means inspiration) and he told us that his work was mainly influenced by African and Aboriginal music/culture. A lot of buskers who play or perform in a musical way are influenced by native cultures and their music and play instruments such as the didgeridoo. Another type of live performer is one who paints themselves in a white or metallic colour and stand still or moves only slightly, like a statue. These[[image:IMG_9825.jpg width="272" height="241" align="right" caption="Hoiser Lane"]] buskers may be dressed as anything, from a pirate to an astronaut so they can get inspiration fromanything such as a character out of a book or movie.


 * Laneways-** The laneways of Melbourne have a shabby, grungy feel to them and this is because of what they were before they became an iconic piece of Melbourne; unkept, often dirty areas filled with tags and bins. The once neglected areas of our city, while still the same in many ways, now have a charm to them which makes them so popular. Most laneways now have this look purposely, while in reality, they have a lot of effort and time put into them; artists put hours into creating murals, the Laneway Commission go through scores of graffiti artists who have applied and choose who will put their work in the laneways and business owners put a lot of effort into making their business appealing to the public while also keeping it to the same unkept look of the laneways.