wonderwalls street art saturday

Let's start with the most important stuff first... I'm down one annoying set of neighbours! The people who followed me here from the old place are gone. I suspected as much on Friday when I got home and what appeared to be a moving van was parked outside the apartment, but they seemed to be unloading rather than loading. But this afternoon as Ma was leaving, the door opened and this shirtless, gorgeous young blonde guy stepped out. I was so gob-smacked I didn't even have the presence of mind to do the "new neighbour head nod" thing. So thanks very much Rental Agreement, God of Housing... you did pretty damn well!

Hopefully they (I'm guessing the girl who he was opening to door for is his girlfriend... but you never know) turn out to be the respectful, quiet kind of neighbours.

Also, and the reasons why will become apparent shortly, if they're not already apparent from the images at the top of the post, but I'm decidedly sunburned. Only down my forearms really, I had the presence of mind to actually wear a hat, but I am very pink of skin in spots.

The shopping portion of the day was reasonably painless... I was running a little behind this morning, which isn't really all that surprising, given that I was up until about 1:45 this morning (sadly not because I was doing anything exciting like having great sex or playing video games).

But when Ma arrived we headed off to the supermarket for all of the usualness, which this week seemed to consist predominately of fruit and veg... and nothing specifically exotic for Australia Day, because m'eh.

Then we headed back here and I showed Ma some of the research I'd been doing on the family tree... she's going to dig up some bits and pieces she has that I should be able to add to the tree or clear up details here and there.

I needed to grab a new screen protector for my phone, although I really wish I could remember (or find the left over ones that I'm sure I have somewhere) what the brand was of the one I used to have, it was essentially perfect in just about every way, no bubbles, it never peeled away until very recently and while I scratched the living daylights out of it with my thumbnail it held up very well.

We stopped off at Arndale and headed into Big W to take a look. I was hoping they may also still have the Lego cases in stock. Mine is still okay, but a year of pulling it in and out of my pocket has rubbed the Lego branding off the back of all of the studs, and it could just do with a general freshen up. But unfortunately they didn't have any.

Also, it always baffles me that they have to advertise that screen protectors are transparent... like that's some kind of fucking surprise. And that they often find several different ways to say the same thing on what looks like different versions of the exact same item.

Then we headed down to Port Adelaide for the Wonderwalls Street Art Festival!

We started out at the old Flour Mill to pick up a map of all the locations and check out the little art show they had there, along with the giant Guido Van Helten piece of the two faces in the previous pair of images.

The artworks were possibly just that little bit too spread out to really park in one spot and wander around to them all, but we did end up doing most of the central ones in one long wander.

And of all the pieces, including my favourite one (the guy with his face covered in the military jacket at the top of the post), I think the greatest revelations was the piece on the right, by Smug One, all the way from Scotland (although I think he was originally from here).

But seriously, the fact that that amazing piece of art came out of a spray can blows my mind. Doubly so, because as one of the comments on the Instagram version of that image said, Smug claims that it's "just copying a picture, anyone can do it".

Yeah, I'm going to go with "no". He's clearly a wizard of some sort.

Then we circled around to the collection of artists working on the fence surrounding that seemingly wasted bit of space down by the Port Adelaide lighthouse, and specifically to see my buddy Josh and his daring young girl on the flying... well, hoop I guess, or could you still call it a trapeze?

We chatted for a bit, helped him get one of his giant stencils in place and then headed off to check out some more artwork and then have some lunch.

Lunch was fairly by the numbers... we've been to the same cafe a couple of times before I think but I remember it being somewhat better than that. Or at least not seeming so pedestrian.

We definitely saved the most gigantic pieces for last.

I'd seen a number of pictures of the Sainer and Bezt (Etam Cru) piece online last night, but it wasn't until I saw the seven story military man that I fell completely and absolutely in love with it. I'd seen bits of it peeking between other buildings as we wandered around, but seeing it in the flesh and seeing just how incredibly ENORMOUS it is on the side of the abandoned former Department of Marine and Harbors Building.

The flip side of the building by Askew One and Elliot Francis Stewart was amazing too... and I actually loved that we caught it unfinished. Actually I always love that... seeing street art mostly finished, with some work still to do and then wandering back later and seeing how it's changed now that it's complete.

It was also great to see so many people out and about looking at the artworks...

Some were people you would, I guess, expect to see at something like that, but others were just regular folks out to see the art. Which is good, I always enjoy seeing people either experiencing street art for the first time, or finally understanding that there's a gigantic difference between the ugly little scribbled tags that mess up public spaces, and these absolutely amazing pieces of art.

That was pretty much it for the day really... which was good because by that point we were pretty much buggered from all the wandering around.

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