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| Street art at Hosier Lane |
I have always loved public art, and Melbourne is a place where they have a lot of it. Melbourne has a self-invented reputation as the cultural capital of Australia - a reputation I do not disagree with. The central business district (or CBD) has art scattered all around it. Where bleak concrete edifices were erected around town, street artists take it upon themselves to liven up with stencils, stickers and spray paint. The architecture of buildings themselves range from Victorian to downright whimsical. The thing that I really like and that caught my attention was the highway art.
A road that I often find myself driving is the freeway between Melbourne and Flinders, Kate's hometown to the southeast. To the northwest of Melbourne is the main airport. To the far west of Melbourne is Horsham, where Kate's youngest sister and her family live. As a result, two- and three-hour drives are a normal part of staying in Flinders. The area around Flinders, the Mornington Peninsula, is a multi-lane, well-marked road that can be quite routine to drive. Unless there's ALL KINDS of crazy artwork to look at along the way. Here's a sample of what you see on the two hour drive.
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| Cubidst cow in a tree in Docklands |
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| A 7 metre tall chrome gnome |
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A narrow little hotel with no parking lot or
entrance. It lights up at night, too. |
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Crazy-cool sound walls that keep the sound from
going into the farmer's fields |
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| Willy Wonka-like toys |
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| Rusting steel sheep's skull |
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| Cubist-style blackbird eating a cubist worm |
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| Open air tunnel/sound tube |
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| Yellow and red spikes that serve no purpose |
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| This galvanized, 8 meter tall thing |
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| Even the overpass supports can be cool! |
This really helps to liven up the drive. What a cool thing to incorporate into public works projects!
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