Creative Program at Town Hall Station
Metro Tunnel artwork by Marcus Lee, 2020
Marcus Lee, creative director of Marcus Lee Design, draws on a creative understanding of Indigenous art culture while applying fresh directions to evolve and develop his design work towards a modern and contemporary aesthetic.
Marcus Lee Design has evolved throughout the realm of communicating cultural diversity. This also brings with it the scope to participate within the commercial community helping to improve the living standards of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Born and raised in Darwin, Marcus is a descendant of the Karajarri people (WA) and is proud of his Aboriginal heritage.
Artist Statement
“This artwork reflects the Metro Tunnel traversing throughout the Melbourne region. The geometric multi coloured circular grid design interconnects together alluding to the new train tunnels and stations.
Contemporary linear diamond shaped patterns integrate through the graphic forms which reflect upon traditional Aboriginal South Eastern Australian artistic expressions.”
Website: marcusleedesign.com.au
Photography by Charlie Kinross
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Flinders St closure - creative wayfinding by Weekdays, 2020
Beautiful retro-style signs have been installed around the Flinders St closure to help people navigate their way through the area, but also to support businesses as they steadily re-open.
Melbourne design agency, Weekdays worked with the local businesses to come up with signs that would showcase their brand, while reflecting the iconic character of Degraves St and its surrounds.
The Flinders St closure creative signage in nominated in the 2020 Melbourne Design Awards.
Photography by Charlie Kinross
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'Physical Distancing Koalas' by Will & Garrett Huxley, 2020
Creative duo Will & Garrett Huxley designed an engaging artwork to share an important safety message during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sparkly, life size koalas were joined by love but at a safe physical distance of 1.5 metres. The artwork brightened up the Scott Alley lane way during a challenging time in the central city.
Photography by Charlie Kinross
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Pat Perry
Pat Perry, an internationally renowned artist known for his large-scale works across the globe, has painted a 90-metre long, over 20-metre wide mural on the rooftop of the acoustic shed erected over City Square. The shed was built as part of construction of the new Town Hall Station to ensure noise and dust is contained.
The elevated artwork pays homage to early Melbourne’s theatre history and was inspired by a visit to the Princess Theatre archives with prominent theatre owner and historian Elaine Marriner earlier this year. The design shows a theatre troupe that might have graced the stage in the late 1800s.
The artwork will be seen by office workers in surrounding buildings, as well as the many guests of the neighbouring hotel, The Westin Melbourne.
Local street-art studio Juddy Roller has worked with Pat, while two Melbourne artists, Georgina Goodnow and Jason Parker, assisted with the painting.
The program has also commissioned local costume designer, Nick Barlow, to bring the designs to life for a real theatre troupe.
Photography by Chris Shorten: https://www.balloonman.com.au/
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Federation Square screens
The Metro Tunnel Creative Program has enhanced the existing digital place experience in Federation Square with the addition of two large screens integrated into the construction hoarding facing into the square. Digital totems are also installed in the hoarding, allowing useful information about project and traffic updates to be easily communicated with thousands of passers by.
Photography by Charlie Kinross
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Federation Square: Taj Alexander artwork
Painter and designer Taj Alexander has been influencing the Melbourne street art scene for over a decade and his work can be found in both galleries and street contexts around the world.
His work continues to explore aesthetic and interpersonal relationships through compositional conversations in form and texture.
The Metro Tunnel Creative Program commissioned Taj to complete a large scale painted work on its Federation Square hoardings facing the East Shard.
The colourful work reflects the Federation Square brand and brightens a walkway used by thousands of commuters and city visitors every day.
Photography by Charlie Kinross
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Nicholas Building tenants by Kate Ballis, 2019
The Metro Tunnel’s City Square construction site is currently displaying a photo essay celebrating the historic Nicholas Building and some of its talented tenants.
The building is home to a unique and diverse range of art galleries, fashion designers, artist and design studios, jewellery makers, musicians, storytellers, architects and digital innovators.
Built in 1926 and designed by Harry Norris, the Nicholas Building while one of the oldest precincts in Melbourne, still gleams with its remarkable, grand ‘Chicago Style’ architecture.
A few original features remain such as its mail chute that carried letters down from upper floors; as well as the beautifully preserved art deco arcade.
About the artist
The exceptional portraits were taken by Kate Ballis - a Melbourne-based fine art photographer.
Her work often explores the themes of seeing the unseen, where she creates unique, colour-drenched images using infrared technology.
Photography by Phoebe Powell
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Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams by Will & Garrett Huxley, 2019
Inspired to create a glamourous surreal escape from everyday life, the Huxley’s static fashion parade brings together a colourful collection of their abstract impractical costumes. Their work hopes to bring a sense of freedom, a sense of humour and a severe sense of style to the sidewalk.
Celebrating anonymity and subverting notions of identity, these works break the binaries concerned with gender, body and race, allowing a sense of mystery and outré visual stimulation. Paying homage to glam rock, Oskar Schlemmer and the late great Melbourne icon Leigh Bowery, this work is The Huxleys sequin clad family portrait.
About the artist
The Huxleys are a colourful cataclysm of camp theatrics. A visual assault of sparkle, surrealism and silliness. Working across performance art, costume, moving and still imagery they saturate their work with a glamorous, androgynous freedom which aims to bring some escapism and magic to everyday life.
They have exhibited artwork in installations, fashion shows, performances, exhibitions and festivals across the world including Tokyo, London, Berlin, New York, Hong Kong and around Australia.
They have been featured in Vogue Living, Vice Magazine, Oyster Magazine, The Age, Art Collector Magazine and part of a documentary series for ABC TV.
The duo has collaborated on various art and performance concepts for Melbourne Festival, Dark Mofo, Melbourne Fashion Week, NGV, Arts House, Sydney Contemporary, Art Gallery of NSW, Melbourne Art Fair, Meredith Music Festival, Hong Kong Design Week, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, QGOMA, Art Bank, AGSA & AGWA.
The Huxley’s artwork for the Metro Tunnel Creative Program is a finalist in the 2019 Premier’s Design Awards.
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YIRRAMBOI First Nations festival, 2019
The Metro Tunnel Creative was proud to celebrate the 2019 YIRRAMBOI First Nations festival by displaying these stunning artworks by Gunnai, Wiradjuri, Gunditjmara and Yorta Yorta woman Lyn-Al Young and Boon Wurrung and Wemba Wemba woman Jarra Karalinar Steel.
Photography by James Henry
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BURRAI WULA (baby emu)
By Lyn-Al Young, 2019
Artist statement
Baby emus have strong and distinct markings in their feathers, almost like the blueprint for their lives. As they grow older their markings are not visible anymore, but their purpose remains the same.
The Emu symbolically represents our nation moving forward with diligence, integrity and humility. In this piece, it is depicted as spiritually guiding us on the path to wisdom and truth.
Lyn-Al
Lyn-Al Young is a Gunnai, Wiradjuri, Gunditjmara and Yorta Yorta fashion designer and artist living in Melbourne.
Her name, Lyn-Al, means grandmother and is a reminder of the importance of connecting back and honouring her heritage every time she starts her design process.
Realising the power of fashion and art, Lyn-Al seeks to release ‘Marrumbang’ - love and kindness - into each design and silk painting. Using an ancient method of singing in and over each one of her creations, guided by her ancestors she follows her spiritual songline and speaks positive words into the silk, dyes and water.
Website: lyn-al.com.au
Instagram: @lyn_al
BARRAEEMAL TEERRANDEERR (emu egg)
By Jarra Karalinar Steel, 2019
Artist Statement
The emu eggs have a strong presence in my life, being taught by my Elders on Country, how to hunt for the eggs as a child and having memories of watching them engrave them with nature motifs. The strong contrast of the dark blue green of the shell and the lighter colour inside always sticks heavily in my memory.
Influenced by this, I use the egg as a way of self-expression to keep me connected to my Ancestors, in honour of them.
Jarra Karalinar Steel
A Boon Wurrung and Wemba Wemba woman born in Melbourne Australia, Jarra is a descendant of Louisa Briggs and Daughter of N'arweet Carolyn Briggs.
A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts she is currently studying for a Master of Fine Arts at RMIT after spending a year in Paris refining her skills.
Jarra is a multidisciplinary artist working across different mediums from; sculpture, writing; photography, writing, drawing, painting, film making, fashion design and costumes for theatre production.
Photography by James Henry
Website: http://www.jameshenryphotography.com.au/
RAILway by Peter Atkins
RAILway by renowned Melbourne artist Peter Atkins has been selected for display on the construction hoardings at City Square on Swanston Street.
The work is based on abstracted designs of suburban train tickets issued between 1920 and the late 1980s that departed from or arrived into Melbourne.
About the artist
Peter Atkins is a graduate of the National Art School, Sydney and currently lives and works in Melbourne. He has held over 40 solo exhibitions in Australia and Internationally.
Atkins’ practice centres around the appropriation and re-interpretation of ready-made abstract forms that he documents within the urban environment. This collected material becomes the direct reference source for his work, providing tangible evidence to the viewer of his relationship and experience within the landscape.
Read the artist's essay and biography for more information.
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'Me In Couture' by Adele Varcoe, 2018
To celebrate Melbourne Fashion Week, Adele Varcoe's work Me In Couture was on display at the Town Hall Station construction site.
The City Square area has in previous years been a significant site for fashion week events, now hosted elsewhere nearby.
Me in Couture proposes a new kind of fashion collection that might be part of a Paris or Melbourne fashion week. It could be considered high-end, conceptual or as Haute Couture.
Varcoe is interested in the behaviour fashion evokes and the role social interaction plays in shaping our perception of dress.
The garments pictured in the work are made from plasticine, exploring ideas for future textiles that might consist of a material that can be constantly remodelled to create a new garment.
About the artist
Adele Varcoe is an Australian artist and designer creating fashion experiences exploring the social and emotional effects of fashion, dress and clothes.
For more information visit adelevarcoe.com.
Photography by Charlie Kinross
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MoMA artwork
In partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria, the hoarding at Town Hall was used to promote masterpieces from the MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art exhibition.
Prints of the MoMA pieces including iconic artwork from Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso and others were on show along Swanston Street, encouraging people to see the original works at the NGV a short walk away.
Photography by Charlie Kinross
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'Crowd Stance' by Rafaella McDonald
Crowd Stance depicted an imaginary collective of bodies made up of many feet and hands, caught in a dance and lifting off the ground. The artwork uses bold colour, intuitive mark making and cartoon like images of the body in various forms of action to playfully mimic the exchange between individual subjectivity and the collective identity of a crowd.
Crowd Stance seeks to explore how the individual considers themselves within, and also separate to a crowd. What do we project onto a crowd, and in doing so, how do we shape a crowd from within?
About the artist
Rafaella is an artist living in Melbourne and works in gallery settings, public spaces, on clothing and in collaborative performance. She is interested in using colour, bodily gestures and hand-made materials to explore joy as a strategy. Rafaella has exhibited work at The National Gallery of Victoria, West Space Gallery, TCB Art Inc, The Substation and in the biennial Next Wave Festival for emerging artists.
She has painted large-scale mural commissions for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Shepparton Art Museum and the City of Stonnington.
