Architectures of Light, 2015
The Essendon Tram Depot.
The tram will be travelling on routes 11 and 86.
Melbourne Festival, Yarra Trams, Creative Victoria, MPavilion
Photography James HH Morgan
The mobile art platform elevated in 1978 by the Transporting Art scheme saw 36 painted trams until 1993.
We admired the 1st mobile public art projects, which included iconic works from artists David Larwill, Howard Arkley, Mirka Mora, Michael Leunig, and Elisabeth Gower.
Their works changed the way we saw, and shared art, outside of the gallery, and moving within our diverse and exciting city.
They became integrated within our social and human relationships. As teenagers, we played Game and Watch with them, we fell in love across them, and we were late for school because of them!
Creative interventions within Architecture and public space continue to engage Melbournians today.
In the context of this year’s theme ‘Architecture and the City’ the project extends to offer new platforms for perspectives, about community, mobility, migration; and architecture and ‘Us.’
My tram ‘Architectures of Light’ refers to other ways of seeing the changing world of our cities, through developments of playfully active urban spaces.
The work refers to ways of welcoming creative influence in Melbourne from around the globe. It is an extension of a site-specific project from 2012, which referenced the city grid, and Le Coubusier’s ideal city.
Here I skinned the 20-storey façade of Fitzroy’s high-rise Atherton Gardens Estate in Melbourne, with projected light works of international Architecture and Galleries.
Built by the Housing Commission of Victoria between the mid 1960s and 1971, these locally pre-fabricated concrete buildings, replaced over 260 houses, and became towers of innovative cultures and diverse communities.
The tram artwork was made from collages of these light works, onto the Atherton Gardens Estate, with Projectionteknik, in Gertrude Street Projection Festival 2012, and was captured on site with photographer James HH Morgan.
The tram is the result of documentation of these juxtapositions, of the imagery on the site, set against the contemporary view of the building, and the everyday streetscapes of Melbourne.
I love the idea of artworks transporting us through the city during the festival, as this creates another layer and complexity to this fantastic city.
Melbourne Festival, Yarra Trams, Creative Victoria, MPavilion