Watch bare city walls transform into vibrant public art sites as curated galleries of stick-ups, stencils and freehand street art are projected on buildings across town as part of the 2009 Perth International Arts Festival’s ReFace project.
As the city throbs with an influx of nocturnal visitors, ReFace investigates whether public perception changes when the artwork is impermanent, providing street artists with a legal means to get their work shown on some of the most notorious walls in Perth.
Initiated by art collective ololo and production company WBMC, and supported by ABC, ScreenWest and the Department of Culture and the Arts as part of iArts, ReFace is a stridently inclusive globally reaching project that invites artists of all stripes to let their creative voices be heard.
Utilising an interactive online gallery, users can upload their work, tag images, curate their favourites, communicate with other artists, and watch live webcam feeds to see if their images make the final cut.
Often humorous, irreverent and highly personal, street art is an emerging art form that enables the everyman to interact creatively with public spaces while engaging with transient and ever-changing city communities.
ReFace instigates a diverse new cultural dialogue, exploring the line between public art, street art and graffiti in a state that is currently navigating the effects of stringent anti-graffiti legislation.
By promoting and recontextualising the role of street art as a dynamic and legitimate means of cultural exchange, ReFace aims to reform attitudes towards this emergent artistic discourse while exalting in the work of a new generation of talented creatives.
(from reface.abc.net.au)
WBMC produced this short documentary on the project, which aired on ABC’s Sunday Arts.
And here’s the TVC that aired on the ABC.