Last month residents of Melbourne, Australia were dismayed to discover more than two hundred concrete bollards scattered across their central business district. The bleak grey blocks are intended to restrict vehicles from high-density pedestrian areas such as Bourke Street, where six people were killed in January by a rogue driver. The Melbourne Council issued a statement saying they installed the bollards at the request of the State Government and Victoria Police, in hopes that "the concrete barriers will provide greater security to people visiting and gathering in the city."
Residents have criticised the dystopian bollards for their blatant lack of aesthetic appeal, as well as the fact each block is a haunting, five-tonne reminder of the lives lost on Bourke Street and in the similar attacks over the past months in Nice, Berlin and London.
Melbourne's artists pride themselves on their city's vibrant cultural identity, so when local resident David Gray decided to hand-stitch a bright fabric cover for one of the bollards lining the front of Southern Cross Station, other local creatives joined in. Each concrete cube became be a five sided blank canvas.
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Bollards covered in fabric
Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he meant no disrespect to the victims of the attack in January, and rather he wanted to honour them and help to re-energise the city in the wake of such a sobering and tragic event.
Creators went to Southern Cross to see the bollards for ourselves, and nearby busking musician Lindsay Chapman told us people were enjoying the street art makeovers. "People like to sit on [the bollards] and watch shows, parkour crews have moved in in the evenings, obviously people are painting them and people walk around them in circles looking at the paintings," he said.
Unpainted concrete bollards dotted around Federation Square
Chapman witnessed one of the bollards being painted while busking, and said he was surprised how respectful everyone was while the paint was still drying. He has noticed the increased police presence in the city, and told Creators "I was actually at GPO when the 'Bourke St Rampage' happened, and ugly as they are, I feel somehow connected with these concrete cubes."
For Chapman, the bollards "Represent some irrational fear, they are basically just illusions of safety and have a somewhat militant vibe about them. If they're going to stay it's important that art extends their meaning."
The response to what's been termed #BollArt from the Melbourne public has been overwhelmingly positive. As one local passerby told Creators, "It goes with the rest of the city. I think it's so great, we might as well do something nice with them while they are here… It's bad enough being reminded that our city might not be as safe as we thought".Having been on the defensive since the start of the project, the Melbourne Council's response to the actions of guerilla artists has been mixed. On Twitter, the Council reacted positively to Gray's fabric covers, saying they would not be removed. Yet earlier this week, one half of local street art duo Cit Cat was reportedly threatened with arrest by police officers for pasting a paper stencil artwork, and will be receiving a summons in the mail for graffiti misdemeanour. Speaking to the ABC, the artist explained to the officers that "I just wanted it to be a positive expression and share it with people… it was overall quite humiliating … I felt shaken up."
One street artist cheekily attributed a bollard to Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria
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