Graffiti News
Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue Mural on a Belconnen House
A mural of singers Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue has appeared on the wall of a house in Belconnen, a district of Canberra, Australia. According to a report by Megan Doherty in The Canberra Times, Canberra artist Lawrence Tan painted it with spray paint at the homeowner's request, and since it was finished people have been coming to the street specifically to see it. The owner, David, said he hopes it becomes a local landmark.
A 1996 backstage photograph as the source
The mural comes from a real photograph. The Canberra Times reports that it is based on a 1996 shoot by photographer Tony Mott, taken backstage at the Big Day Out festival in Melbourne. Minogue and Cave's duet "Where the Wild Roses Grow" had been released a few months earlier, and Mott's candid pictures of the pairing became part of Australian rock history.
The house is on Hennessy Street in Belconnen, and the mural faces a busy road that carries a bus route and a pedestrian corridor.
Permission came first
David originally wanted a mural of Kylie Minogue alone. According to The Canberra Times, there were complications in obtaining permission to use certain images, so artist and owner settled on Mott's Big Day Out photographs instead. Tan sought out Mott, got his agreement to use the images as the basis for the mural, and cleared the copyright.
Mott told The Canberra Times: "I think it's bloody brilliant." He said several people had already contacted him about the wall, and noted that the original photo session appears in episode three of the Netflix documentary about Kylie Minogue.
How the blank wall came about
The Canberra Times reports that David moved into the house about a year ago with his teenage son after a divorce, returning to Belconnen, where he grew up. He cleared dense greenery from the wall and had cracks repaired, which left a large empty surface. "Once the structural work was finished, I was left with this enormous blank wall. It was crying out for some colour," he said.
He also pointed to the nearby wetlands and the habitat restoration that local volunteers have been doing along the Emu Creek corridor, and said he wanted to add something positive to that spirit.
Forty hours in a Canberra winter
According to The Canberra Times, Tan spent around 40 hours over a couple of weeks in August, the middle of a Canberra winter, building the image up layer by layer with spray paint. He listened to "Where the Wild Roses Grow" while he worked. "I love painting portraits and thoroughly enjoy the process and challenges it brings," Tan said. "During the process, I get to know who I am painting and listen to their music, giving me an insight into their personalities."
As the work progressed, David said, people stopped in the street to watch, cars slowed down, and passers-by called out encouragement and questions. Tan has painted several other murals around Canberra, including a scene from Pulp Fiction on a garage in Fyshwick and a new work on the Branx building in Braddon.
What the wall has started
David has planted a wild rose and other plants in front of the mural. He told The Canberra Times that while watering them one day, four people turned up on their lunch break specifically to see the wall, and they ended up talking for some time. "What has struck me most since it was completed is how many people I've met because of it," he said. "More than anything, I hope it makes people smile." The paper describes the piece as part of a continuing trend of Canberrans putting art on their homes for everyone to see.
Why it matters for street art
This is a private wall, but it faces a public road and works as public art. The order of events is the part worth copying: before painting a famous face, the artist tracked down the copyright holder of the original photograph and got permission, and the owner dropped his first idea when the rights could not be cleared. Anyone commissioning or painting a portrait mural can use the same checklist.
If you pass the wall in Belconnen, you can pin it on the Wallscape map. The feed collects portrait murals from other cities.