Street Art of Lismore - Part Two

Rob Harle

by Robert Maddox_Harle (aka Rob Harle)

As promised here is Part Two of The Street Art of Lismore, I mentioned in Part One (Setu, Nov 2019 issue) the quality and variety of street art and graffiti in Lismore is literally awe inspiring. I have given the works simple titles myself for ease of identification and discussion only, these were not given by the artists.

 

Image 1 The Kid 

Lismore is a regional country city in north-eastern NSW Australia, I recently moved from the hills of Nimbin into Lismore to live. We are close to the coast, the eastern most point in Australia, and to the (in)famous Byron Bay. Lismore is the health/medical centre of the northern rivers area, has a good university, (Southern Cross University), the Northern Rivers Conservatorium, a TAFE College (with excellent art courses) and a new Regional Art Gallery. Lismore is becoming famous for its avant-garde cafés, Eat The Street food festival, and also is a vibrant centre for the Tropical Fruits (a LGBTQ advocacy group). Little wonder it is home to a huge number of artists, craftspeople and musicians.

Many of the images shown here are in the so-called Back Alley Gallery of Lismore CBD. This amazing project started as a liaison between local artists and businesses.

The fantastic thing is that it is an ongoing project with new pieces added regularly.

 

Image 2 Black Vest

Image 3 Art Is Not A Crime

   

Image 4 Complex

Image 5 ID

Image 6 Forest Fun

Image 7 Purple Can

Image 8 Rain Hail Shine

Image 9 Too Relaxed

Image 10 Ramblers

Image 11 Towers

Image 12 Whiskers

Image 13 Two Heads

 

Image 14 Some Artist’s Names

  

Image 15 Eat The Street

Eat The Street is an annual event which showcases the region’s produce and huge number of different cuisines. Food from most countries around the world is represented and patrons can dine on these delicacies in the closed-off sreets.

Many of the artworks, especially those in the Back Alleys, carry a message, generally concerned with eradicating racism, building bridges instead of walls, equality for ALL people, and getting art off gallery walls and bringing it to the public as part of their daily experience. A few graffiti artists are bitter and hate most things about modern society, so have no respect for others nor public structures and deface these with their generally inferior ego-centric personal signature logos, none of these are shown here. It is a credit to local Council to encourage and support, the mainly young artists, in projects like the Back Alley Gallery.

Setu, December 2019