For the past two years ADA have been the driving culture consultants leading place making at East Brunswick Village and have been dedicated to making art a part of everyday life.
EBV primarily engaged local artists to commission public art that will stand the test of time. The commissioned works are part of a substantial commitment to arts and culture by the Banco Group.
Artists Datsun Tran, Robert Hague, Saffron Newey, Al Stark, Vexta, ELLE & Melanie Young were commissioned to create new works for the new development of East Brunswick Village.
They investigated the history of East Brunswick, the site’s industrial and historical past, the culturally diverse community and the contemporary environment to ensure that the artworks being conceived, developed and delivered for EBV were relevant to the community.
Artist Datsun Tran transformed the busy ground floor lobby entrance – the face of the development – into an exciting contemporary environment featuring animals, flora and birds of the area. He draws from his own ongoing creative subject matter, which mainly features animals, but the work is about us, the human story. It’s a story about the two sides to us: competition and community.
Five artists – Saffron Newey, Al Stark, VEXTA, Melanie Young and ELLE were commissioned to paint wall murals for the residential spaces at EBV.
Artist Saffron Newey painted a wall mural on the first floor of the residential hallways. Newey’s practice draws upon historical narrative and at EBV she depicts Brunswick’s local Merri Creek, as it was painted by Abram Lois Buvelot, in the late 19th Century.
Al Stark returned to EBV to create a mural on the second floor. His images reference forms of traditional indigenous and folk art throughout the world and gestural representations of Australian bush, birds and landscape form a floating narrative for his design for the residential hallways.
Painter VEXTA is recognized in the street art scene as one of the leading female artists. Titled ‘Flight Sequence’, this mural draws upon the artists own personal symbolism of freedom and connectedness for the residents of the third floor at EBV.
Artist Melanie Young draws upon the native flora of the Merri Creek, the brick works and the multicultural nature of the Brunswick community for her wall mural on the fourth floor. Young uses pattern as a stylized form of different wild flowers from the Merri creek, in particular Yam daisy, Chocolate lilli and Kangaroo apple.
On the fifth floor and rooftop lobby ELLE has created stories by collaging disparate images of flora and fauna juxtaposed with vibrant colours, revealing purposefully designed messages for the residents of EBV.
These works are on top of art work already part of the project by sculptor, Will Heathcote, and 30-metres of hoarding by Al Stark who was then employed to put his own street art team together to paint the back hoarding of the site.
Delivered by ADA Consulting, March 2020
ELLE, Robert Hague, Saffron Newey, Al Stark, Datsun Tran, Vexta, Melanie Young
East Brunswick Village Public Art Commissions
Banco Group
JAM Architects
East Brunswick Village
127 – 149 Nicholson St, East Brunswick
City of Moreland