This blog is a combination of a planned and an unplanned walk to explore the street art in Northbridge.
For our first walk (the orange trail on maps below) we explored the centre of Northbridge. We started at Chinatown where there are numerous artworks within the restaurant precinct. The artist I am the Wong chose a Chinese expression 'If people are of one heart, even the yellow earth can become gold' for his mural. This expression underpins the idea that when people stick together, anything can be achieved. As an example the Chinese community banded together and created their own place in Perth in spite of the White Australia Policy and anti-Asian attitudes on the goldfields.
Other art featured in the precinct:
From Chinatown we explored Nick's Lane to Roe Street and the little laneway that links Nick's Lane to the car park to see the gorgeous AMOK sugar glider and the curious creature by CURIOT.
At the back of the Roe Street carpark you will find Border Crossing. Get up close and you’ll see that the background notations are actually beautiful lines of poetry and a recipe for lime pickle! This beautiful mural, commissioned in 2012, formed part of the original Art City Walking Trail.
From there we wandered past the DAEK murals at Arcade 189 (William Street).
We then followed William Street to James Street where we took the laneway between the Alex Hotel and the Alexander Library. Just be aware these laneways run behind restaurants and nightclubs so they can be a little confronting or unsavoury depending on when you are there.
Reaching Francis Street follow the adjacent laneway to see Memory of the Land, a massive mural on the side of the TAFE building. The artist, Aec explains that the mural is symbolic of Australian history and nature and touches on eternity.
Another standout is Migration, another enormous mural on the TAFE building.
Continuing along Aberdeen Street you come across Baba Yaga's Houses. Inspired by a character in Eastern European folklore these funny little sculptures capture Baba Yaga, a witch who flies around in a mortar, wields a pestle, and lives in a hut that stands on dancing chicken legs.
This side of the TAFE building does not disappoint with another massive mural Rainbow Serpent, based on the Aboriginal mythological tale of the creator figure the Waugyl . The mural also features a numbat, a balga and a red tailed black cockatoo.
And one more! Also on TAFE is Self Protection of the Immigrant in Ourself’ . Opposite is a mural featuring Perth rapper and Hip Hop artist, Robert Hunter - aka MC Hunter. Hunter died at the age of 36, after losing a two year battle with cancer.
This is where we leave the orange trail and follow the blue trail, continuing along Aberdeen Street past the beautiful kaleidoscope style mural by Perth artist Ian Williams and these wiry characters relaxing outside the TAFE Art and Design Centre.
Continuing along Beaufort Street past Weld Square we turned down Little Parry Street where we found some remarkable artworks dotting this laneway.
As we emerged back on William Street we could see the eye catching black and white mural on the wall behind the Good Fortune Roast Duck House, an uplifting mural on the walls of the Salvation Army and the very pretty Red Tail and White Tail Cockatoos mural on the corner of Newcastle & William Streets.
Here you can also find The Ballad Of Gary Hayes on the side of The Moon - Cafe. Do you recognise what is now Elizabeth Quay!
You can spend quite some time taking in all the detail of these wonderful murals by Melski.
Heading down Lake Street, past the wild animals at Holey Moley, we detoured along Francis Street where a couple of murals caught our attention before doubling back to look at the Arch sculpture featured in the roundabout at James and Lake Street..
In Northbridge Piazza we found the swan and lady mural by ololo - I wonder what she is thinking? - before continuing down Lake Street to Roe Street where you can see Anya Brock's colourful murals. This rounded off our walk bringing us back to where we started near Chinatown.
The orange trail only took about an hour to walk....
but the blue trail took us to the outskirts and ended up taking 3 hours. This was an unplanned walk which had us wandering down some laneways with no art and backtracking to others that did have art - all part of the fun of exploring.
If you enjoyed reading this blog you might like to read about more art trails in my Art and About in Perth Blog or for hiking trails and urban walks head to https://www.outandaboutfnc.com/blog-1
In the spirit of reconciliation Out and About- Family Nature Connection acknowledges the traditional owners of the Wadjak boodjar (Perth land) and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.