I like this guy… I’ve seen him hanging out in a car park behind the Northland Homemaker Centre as well. But this one was snapped by the lovely Miss Lee B in the back streets of Fairfield… a gypsy with a mission – warning the unwary of speed humps ahead.
Photo courtesy Lee Beaton
The gentrification of innercity Melbourne is not universally celebrated by the residents of said burbs. As prices sore to ridiculous figures, those who grew up in once poor neighbourhoods become marginalised and, as rents rise, effectively forced out of their hometowns.
Some go quietly, but others turn to the spray can. One piece of graffiti I saw, but didn’t capture, summed it up in a word – “Gentrifucked”.
This gem below is a 2 parter. I was walking to Fairfield station, in August 2006, and did a double take when I saw this old Victorian fenced in for demolition. Some wit had vented their ire in blue paint for all to see. A week or so later, when I passed the house again, it had been jacked up and cut into pieces. It seems someone did value this old building after all and it was to be relocated and lived in once more. Another spray can commentator had amended the graffiti to reflect the house’s change in fortune. Who says development is all bad news for aging architecture.
There is a long held dislike between certain closed-minded members of the Greek and Turkish communities in Australia that was probably born in the days of Darius’ reprisal invasion for the burning of Sardis in 492BC. Outpourings of this enmity are usually confined to drive by verbiage along the lines of “Pooooftahhhh”, complete with Doppler effect, when random members of either tribe pass defiantly through each others’ strip malls.
More sophisticated insults, like those expressed here in this dual walled graffiti, captured Circa 2007 in the side streets of Fairfield, Vic., are a rarer occurrence, and therefore considered worthy of recording for posterity by the author.
NOTE: the sentiment and opinions expressed in this graffiti do not reflect the opinions of the author or publishers of this blog.
North facing wall – Duncan Street, Fairfield
South Facing Wall – Duncan Street, Fairfield
Snapped on a wall in Fairfield, Vic., when I was living there in August 2006, this little gem speaks for itself.
Glossary: for citizens of non-westminster parliamentary nations the letters P.M. stand for Prime Minister (read President if that tickles your fancy).
