Moreland Graffiti: Photorealism

Photorealism in graffiti

Traditionally graffiti has been associated with lettering and figures, as a walk around Melbourne's inner urban streets and alleys will attest. There are, of course, variations on theme as designs bounce around both the visual and conceptual, and the neural and social networks of the various individuals and groups who participate in graffiti. Ideas grow as they are challenged, influenced and reinterpreted to provide something novel from a syncretism of the old. And to be honest I have come to find tagging by itself a little tedious, even some of the bulbous bi or tri-colour throw-ups without any attending comic characters now tend to fade beyond the blurred edges of my peripheral vision. Instead I find myself drawn to the Pieces such as those of the FYG crew or the larger murals which, thankfully, are numerous and various enough to keep the brain engaged.

In Ma'Claim - Finest Photorealistic Graffiti, it is explained how the graffiti of the HipHop movement spread around the world in a kind of cultural osmosis. As its forms and function were adapted by other groups it began to change and in East Germany the Ma’Claim crew started to produce a photorealistic style that, coupled with arresting wall concepts, soon saw new transformations of graffiti art across the world.

For some beautiful images of Ma'Claim's work see here and here.

Driving down Hoddle Street I catch a glimpse of this image looking down onto the car-park of a maternity clothing outlet called Pea in a Pod.

Sackville St from Hoddle

Parked on Sackville

Sackville Street 01

Sackville Street 02

On Google Maps you can see an image of the wall before it was rendered with this stunning image.

Occam's Razor

Notice the shapes that her hands are making. At first I thought this may have been a depiction of the Egyptian goddess Maat, with the fingers shapes representing the ankh, or symbol for eternal life, and the scepter. She was the Egyptian symbol of truth and justice, law and order and the ostrich feather in her hair was the weighted measure against which the human heart was judged worthy of eternal life. It is a pity that the accident of history encumbered the West with the misogynistic writings of a small tribe of goat-herders rather than some of the more sophisticated religious systems around at the time. Perhaps there may have been no need of such groups as the suffragettes.

At any rate I was forced to give up this hypothesis: you will note the lack of an ostrich feather in the girls hair. Instead I had to run with the competing hypothesis that her L) hand represented the number 3 while her R) represented the letter C. Coupled with the signature “3rd Chapter” to the R) of the image I am forced to concede that Occam's Razor wins again.