The Wall | Kings Way Street Art The Wall | Kings Way Street Art

In the greatest meeting of matter and anti-matter since the two Kirks faced off in Star Trek, the anti-graffiti Doyle and the pro-graffiti Doyle came face to face for the launch of a major piece of street art yesterday.

Lord mayor Robert Doyle pronounced himself "delighted"to be at the unveiling of The Wall, a vividly coloured, 49-metre-long work commissioned and paid for by Crown and "hung"with the blessing of the City of Melbourne and Vic-Roads on a slab of concrete beneath the Kings Way overpass . "It 's agreat addition to Melbourne,"Cr Doyle said. "Congratulations to Crown in helping make this part of what we think is one of the great artistic precincts in the world."

The work's creator, Adrian Doyle (no relation), declared himself similarly pleased, though for quite different reasons . The 34-year-old PhD candidate in art at RMIT said he has been exploring "the aesthetics of suburbia"and had attempted to infuse the work - which he spent six months designing and created with the help of six others with his research.

"I was trying to come up with a mural that blurs the borders between fine art and street art,"he said. "It w'll probably be hated by [fans of] both. That will mean I've nailed it."

Adrian Doyle runs a street art gallery, Blender, and conducts tours of street art in Melbourne's laneways, which had become important tourist destinations, the lord mayor said. "When we mistakenly cleaned a Banksy from Hosier Lane, it made the papers. When the President of the United States uses Shepard Fairey [creator of the "Hope"poster] as a part of his campaigning you know street art has arrived not quite in the mainstream , because that's not where we want it, but certainly in the world of art. And this wall is a wonderful addition to it."

Cr Doyle has not always been so fond of street art. Launching a fleet of anti-graffiti patrol vans in July 2009, he said it was "not my favourite form of art". In October of that year, he called for a city art supplies store with a big line in spray paints to be shut down. He has since refined his position, drawing a distinction between "street art"and mere tagging. Indeed, he said yesterday, part of the value of The Wall is that it will deter lesser forms of graffiti. "You will find that where once there might have been tagging along here now that it is filled with art it protects the wall and this space from vandalism,"he said. Whether taggers will interpret that as a gauntlet being thrown down remains to be seen.

By KARL QUINN
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
The Age - 7-6-2012

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