street art

During the last few days I have been going through the archives looking for material for the forthcoming online Walking/Photography exhibition at Encounters Gallery. Whilst doing so I  came across some  photos of street art in Adelaide, South Australia that I had made around  2011 whilst I was walking  the city. 

I was living in the city at the time and my daily walks with the poodles would be around the CBD and the parklands. These walks would be meanderings--to do with exploration, a way of accommodating myself, of feeling at home. It was a way I got to know the city. Walking  into dead ends,  or  reluctantly retracing  my  steps,  didn't matter to me  because this was part of  the process of  exploration.  

Both of these photos  were made around the same time and they were in Franklin Street in Adelaide's  CBD. Unfortunately, I do not know the artists of any  of these  three works of street art.

Walking the city was more than just a way of getting from one location  to another--ie., going from home to work.   Walking meant a way of being in the urban world as well as a mapping of the city as in transition from an industrial to a post industrial city.  An  everyday activity such as dog walking  enables and  shapes a creative  photographic practice. 

This  kind of walking was a  reaction to the dominance of the car that made parts of  Adelaide  city an unpleasant  space to be in,  because of the noise and fumes. Walking for the sake of the walk was  all but lost in  industrial Adelaide. When we walked we did  so mostly for transportation, to get somewhere.  We still walk but it is not our main mode of moving around. We now primarily travel in the car. Vehicles had eclipsed walking. The primary mode of  walking in the indusrtrial  city was  reduced to window shopping. 

There  is more street art  here and here.