Wall Art in Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is a pedestrian walkway that runs between Pall Mall and Hargreaves Street in Bendigo. Currently home to a variety of speciality business that includes cafes, clothing, and beauty and hair shops, it is rich in history which apparently includes a brothel at some stage.
[ADVERT]It was this latter piece of information that was revealed at the opening last Saturday of a new art space on one of the walls in this quirky lane.
The new piece is a large wall mural that Bendigo artist Julie Andrews took around a month to complete.
Opened by Dr Maggie McCormick, lecturer and coordinator of Major Project, Master of Arts (Art in Public Space), RMIT University, the abstract painting featuring pastel coloured bubbles of many sizes floating upwards, reflects the space between spaces: transpace. The regular rattle of the iconic Bendigo Talking Tram added an extra element to the opening event.
It was great to hear in Ms Andrews thank you speech that many local businesses, as well as the City of Greater Bendigo, had given her lots of support in the creation of this wall art, including Jools for Jim (allocating the wall space for at least two years) and El Gordo Cafe (for endless supplies of coffee while painting plus paint storage space).
I loved the feel of the paint on the rendered wall as well as knowing it was a free art space that the average member of the public can see as they go about their day to day lives.
Chancery Lane has had quite an artistic change of recent years with paper montages featuring at the Hargreaves Street entrance and at the Pall Mall end a lovely set of locally made gates being installed in 2012.
A must see space for visitors as well as locals.
