Elizabeth Street Gallery Unveils New Graffiti-Proof Exhibition

Towards the end of 2012, a bunch of Fairfax photographers decided it was time to do something about one of the Sydney CBD’s most unappealing stretches. Without seeking official permission, the aesthetic vigilantes added more than 40 photos to a wall on Elizabeth Street (near the corner off Goulburn Street) and waited to see what would happen. As it turned out, the Lord Mayor was a supporter and the 'Elizabeth Street Gallery' has remained a fixture.

Two years on, the photos have been tagged and dirtied to a point of near-obscurity. So last Thursday, the team — comprised of Nicholas Walker, Andrew Quilty and Dean Sewell — replaced them with a brand new series. This time, however, they received a $30,000 City of Sydney grant to make it happen. "Each of the 42 new photos has been covered in a graffiti-proof laminate," Walker told the Sydney Morning Herald. "It will just wash right off."

The funding also allowed scope for a submission and curating process. Photographers were asked to submit "long-form photo essays with the realm of documentary and street photography... In accordance with the photographic principles espoused by its founders, work will be created from real life, without direction or manipulation before or after the taking of any photograph beyond the digital equivalent of traditional darkroom techniques."

The six winners were Tom Williams, Daniel Hartley-Allen, Brodie Standen, Lyndal Irons, Josh Robenstone and Marco Bok.

"Sydney has plenty of spaces and buildings which could be improved with the intervention of artists," Clover Moore told the SMH. "There is something exciting about coming across art in unexpected locations, like the wall of a car park or a quiet laneway."

Via SMH. Photo credit Rita Bila.