Stop 1: Bainbridge Place, Fitzroy
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Yarra Council has recently announced a proposal to run street art tours in Fitzroy. Fitzroy has become something of a hub for street art and artists in Melbourne, and acts as an unofficial public face for street art. Its role as an outdoor suburban gallery has created a space for interaction and collaboration on a number of different platforms within the community. By providing a space for expression, it has fostered a connection between people and place and has cultivated an element of participatory art, which involves a level of interactivity and contribution from any member of the public.
Within this landscape, street art that is found on private property is an element that I would like to focus on as it represents one of the increasingly relevant questions and tensions surrounding practices of street art today. This walking tour will explore various pieces of street art that can be found on private property around Fitzroy, some commissioned and others not, and the ideas and tensions that surround this issue.
The council has announced their refusal to remove graffiti from private properties in a bid to preserve the cultural significance of the area. In today’s landscape, street art is reinterpreting cultural boundaries and transforming private properties into a public realm.