Newtown Area Graffiti and Street Art - Works No Longer Extant

Works No Longer Extant

Below: four vanished Newtown murals -- "Idiot Box", Erskineville Rd (photographed November 2006), a Jimi Hendrix portrait in Camperdown Memorial Rest Park (photographed July 2005) and a colourful Mayan-inspired mural (same location and date) and a mural in Goddard Lane (off King St.) photographed in January 2007.

A number of the largest works of street art in the Newtown area have been removed or painted over by the 21st century; including several large murals that are believed to have been executed by the same artist(s) in the early to mid-1990s (formerly located along, or near, Erskineville Road).

For many years since the 1970s, a strip of land along both sides of Erskineville Road, extending east from King St., was reserved by the NSW Department of Main Roads as part of a plan to build a large arterial road through the area. This scheme was eventually abandoned after the imposition of Green Bans by the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), which effectively stopped all work on the planned road; although, a number of shops and houses along the street were demolished. This struggle is now commemorated by Green Bans Park, located near the railway on Erskineville Rd. The park is located on land that was formerly occupied by buildings that were demolished to make way for the proposed road.

Prominent street art pieces and large murals that are no longer extant include:

• The popular "Idiot Box" mural that was painted by Andrew Aiken. The mural was located on the side wall of a large terrace house at 64 Erskineville Road, opposite the renowned Imperial Hotel. It featured a surrealistic portrait of the television character, Marcia Brady, from The Brady Bunch, brandishing an automatic pistol; the mural was painted as if she was bursting through the shattering glass of a television screen. The TV itself is painted in a trompe l'oeil effect, apparently breaking through the brick wall of the house on which the mural is painted. The power switch and power cord and plug of the TV were applied objects made from plastic. This significant mural, which had been in place since 1993, was removed by the new owners of the property in November/December 2006.

• The Felix the Cat and "Cat in the Hat" murals. The murals were painted on the sides of two houses near the intersection of Erskineville Road and Wilson St. These houses originally faced onto a council carpark that had been opened up by the demolition of the terrace that originally stood there. These murals were obscured by the construction of a large block of apartments on the site in the late 1990s. An image of the "Cat In The Hat" mural, taken by Ben Apfelbaum in 1990, can be viewed here.

• The Miles Davis mural "On the Wings of a Song" by Andrew Aiken and Matthew Peet. This was painted on the side of a house adjacent to the Mrs. Mollie Swift Reserve on Erskineville Road. It depicted jazz musicians Miles Davis and John Coltrane with a rainbow and music notes flowing out from the bells of their instruments. This mural was erased/painted over in the early 2000s.

• A mural dedicated to John Coltrane, similar in style to the "Wings" mural but much smaller in size, was painted on the wall a now-defunct laundry business located on the corner of King St. and Egan St. This mural (thought to be painted by Unmitigated Audacity Productions) was removed ca. 2002.

• A figurative mural in Goddard Lane (off King St near the Newtown High School of the Performing Arts) which features distinctive depictions of a spray-can, a cat and a fish (probably by Phibs); this mural was painted over with a new design in Feb. 2008.