Hosier Lane is a laneway in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Located on the CBD's southern edge, it extends between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, and opens opposite the Atrium at Federation Square. Since the late 1990s, Hosier Lane has become a popular tourist attraction due to its street art. [1] Despite popular belief, Hosier Lane is not a legal wall, and graffiti in the area is illegal. [2]
Hosier Lane opened as a Street Art Gallery in 1998 by the City Lights Initiative. [3] The lane is located opposite the entrance to the Atrium at Federation Square on Flinders Street, placing the lane prominent position in the city. The lane has been noted for the quality and the often political nature of its art. [4] It features in the state-sponsored book The Melbourne Design Guide and in Tourism Victoria's Lose Yourself in Melbourne advertising campaign, leading to questions about the dichotomy of Victoria's approach to graffiti. [5] The graffiti-covered walls and art-installations have become a popular backdrop for fashion and wedding photography. In 2013 street artist Adrian Doyle painted the entirety of the adjacent Rutledge Lane one color with the consent of the Melbourne city council to create a work he called "Empty Nursery Blue". [6]
In November 2013, Melbourne's largest urban art paint-up was undertaken in the form of All Your Walls, organised by Invurt, Land of Sunshine and Just Another and held in conjunction with the National Gallery of Victorias Melbourne Now event. Involving some of the cities finest graffiti crews/collectives and street artists, a major makeover of Hosier and Rutledge Lanes was performed, in order to celebrate the significant role street art and graffiti continues to play in the cultural life of this city. Over a period of two massive painting sessions during November 2013, both Hosier and Rutledge Lanes were first entirely buffed black and then completely transformed, top to bottom, by over 100 local graffiti and street artists – all of which culminated in an event with live graffiti projections in Hosier Lane in homage to Melbourne graffiti and street art. [7]
In early 2020, six masked people 'Colour Bombed' the lane, erasing many artworks in the process. This was treated as an act of vandalism by the Melbourne Lord Mayor and was investigated by police for vandalism, while many street artists believed that they did nothing wrong and were just adding to the 'free for all' nature of the site. [8] The incident became the focus of online and tabloid conspiracy theories, with social media users accusing the culprits of being linked alternatively to antifa, Extinction Rebellion, or the Young Liberals, while Daily Mail Australia ran a piece claiming that the Chinese state was behind the incident. [9]
Hosier Lane is also known for its upmarket cocktail lounges including the popular Misty and MoVida. An open air cooking session with MoVida's chef Frank Camorra on Masterchef Australia season 2 showcased the lane as a major Melbourne attraction. [10]
Graffiti is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
Federation Square is a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the Melbourne central business district. It covers an area of 3.2 ha at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets built above busy railway lines and across the road from Flinders Street station. It incorporates major cultural institutions such as the Ian Potter Centre, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and the Koorie Heritage Trust as well as cafes and bars in a series of buildings centred around a large paved square, and a glass walled atrium.
Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertically bisects Melbourne's city centre and is famous as the world's busiest tram corridor, for its heritage buildings and as a shopping strip.
The City Square was a public plaza located in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The site was bounded by Swanston Street, Collins Street, Flinders Lane and the Westin Hotel. The historic landmarks of Melbourne Town Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral were across the streets to the north and south respectively.
Centre Place is a laneway and pedestrian precinct in Melbourne, Australia. It runs north from Flinders Lane to Collins Street, between Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street.
Degraves Street is a pedestrian precinct and thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district in Victoria, Australia. It is a short, narrow laneway that runs north–south from Flinders Street to Flinders Lane and is situated in-between Swanston and Elizabeth streets. Degraves, as the street is colloquially known, is famous for its alfresco dining options and because it epitomises Melbourne's coffee culture and street art scene. For these reasons it has also become a popular tourist destination.
The Melbourne central business district is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city laid out in 1837, and includes its fringes. The Melbourne CBD is located mostly in the local government area of the City of Melbourne, which also includes some of inner suburbs adjoining the CBD, while a small section extends into the City of Port Phillip.
The Block Arcade is a historic shopping arcade in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Constructed between 1891 and 1893, it is considered one of the late Victorian era's finest shopping arcades and ranks among Melbourne's most popular tourist attractions.
Tyrone Wright, better known by his pseudonym Rone, is an Australian street artist based in Melbourne.
Since the 1980s, the area surrounding the Sydney inner west suburb of Newtown, Australia, including the suburbs of Newtown, Enmore, Erskineville, Camperdown and St Peters, has been known for its wide range of prominent graffiti and street art on walls. The public visual art in the Newtown area consists of a variety of styles and methods of execution, including large-scale painted murals, hand-painted political slogans, hand-painted figurative designs, spray painted semi-abstract designs "tags"), and other stylistic developments such as stencil art and street poster art, "Yarn bombing", and sculptural items cast from plaster and other materials.
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria and the second largest city in Australia, has gained international acclaim for its diverse range of street art and associated subcultures. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, much of the city's disaffected youth were influenced by the graffiti of New York City, which subsequently became popular in Melbourne's inner suburbs, and along suburban railway and tram lines.
The Melbourne central business district in Australia is home to numerous lanes and arcades. Often called "laneways", these narrow streets and pedestrian paths date mostly from the Victorian era, and are a popular cultural attraction for their cafes, bars and street art.
Fred Fowler is an Australian-born visual artist, specialising in painting, drawing, bronze sculpture and printmaking.
Parachuting Rat was a series of artworks in Melbourne, Australia, created by Banksy. On 26 April 2010, one was painted over by council contractors, leading to local and international coverage and debate on the nature of street art and its preservation, and new measures for its protection.
Graffiti in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a cause of much disagreement among its residents. Graffiti is seen by some as an art form adding to the Toronto culture; however, others see graffiti as form of vandalism, viewing it as ugly, or as a form of property damage.
Street art in Adelaide is a growing aspect of the wider public arts scene found in the Adelaide central business district. Adelaide street art includes the full gamut of contemporary street art mediums, including stenciling, murals, paste-ups, sticker art and yarn bombing.
Facter, or Fletcher Anderson, is a Melbourne based, Australian multi-disciplinary artist, best known for his colorful creatures rendered in a illustrative style.
Culture Kings is a streetwear clothing and accessories retailer established in 2008. Founded in Gold Coast, Australia by Simon and Tah-nee Beard, Culture Kings has 8 storefronts open in Australia, as well as one storefront in Auckland, New Zealand.
Pieces, short for masterpieces, are a form of graffiti that involves large, elaborate and detailed letter forms. They are one of the main forms of modern graffiti, along with tags and throw ups, and are the least controversial of the three and least likely to be seen as vandalism.
Legal walls or open walls, are public spaces where graffiti is allowed by any member of the public.