Tracks of History: Railroads, Train Art, and Cultural Narratives
One of the things I have learnt over the past 27 years since Jugglers started in Brisbane is that the evolution of art and mark making is a phenomenon with a life of its own. There is a constant in the human imagination, an endless movement in minds, souls and the visceral subconsious that creates a hunger for mark making, a hunger that needs to be asuaged and that is so once marks are made, however naive and undeveloped.
People have said to me: ” I love the mural kind of art but not the tags on fences and trains.” My usual reply is: “How do you think the process unfolds to where you enjoy the aesthetics of pubic murals?” A child’s early marks are restricted into something she must unlearn over a lifetime.
That a train museum would hold a street art event on site in Queensland was another indicator of the evolution of this life. An embracing of the unstoppable life of art and artists. Someone has said “Graffiti is the last bastion of freedom of speech” and yet this bastion will never be silenced. Street art in Queensland is alive and well and so too are tags and throw ups on QR trains. I have seen more train graffiti in Brisbane in the last couple of years than I had in the previous 20 – except after the 2011 Brisbane floods when trains were unguarded and accessible away from the Bowen Hills train yards.
There are tidal waves of crack downs and graffiti activity on trains and buildings in Queensland over the years that is indicative of the hunger for mark making and control of its aesthetic and application. Murals and street art are not replacing graffiti and one could say that there is an attempt at the gentrification of the art of graffiti. Mark making has for centuries had graffiti interations with names and tags while graffiti and tagging with aerosol was a new public art phenonmenon kicked off in New York on trains the 1960’s. It has been famously captured in the 1983 film Style Wars and by photographer Martha Cooper in her bible of graffiti Subway Art . A film by Brisbane film maker and Jugglers friend, Selina Miles – Martha tells some of the story. A TAG Conference was initiated in 2017 in Europe to consider the history and current practice of tags and graffiti. https://www.tag2024.org/
Campbell Newman the 2012-2014 Queensland Premier came to power on the back of a few slogans with one very clear one being his mantra to eliminate graffiti and graffiti mark makers from Queensland. His attempt included bullying and intimidation but clearly this has not worked. The argument around cost to the public is understandable while graffiti as the bastion of freedom of speech is as much about politics as art. It won’t go away soon and my view is that it may well emerge as something hungered for as social media infects the synapses of this generation.
Train art at Brunswick Street Station, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. September 2024
I was asked to facilatate a panel of 5 artists who were painting at the close of this all day event around the theme: Tracks of History:Railroads, Rail Art and Cultural Narratives. The artists were public street art muralists with a range of experiences in street art and graffiti. The conversation did touch on the illegal experimentation but mostly it focussed on the evolution of street art that now postively includes aboriginal and female artists that was once in Australia a young white male only collective.
Despite the heat of the day – it was Ipswich after all – there was a strong sense of good times and the plan for it to be repeated in 2025. The event was initiated by the Museum of Brisbane and curated by Yonder Festival and Super Ordinary in Brisbane. All artists and panel participants were paid – as was the facilitator and even though it was not an hourly rate it did cover some basic costs for travel and some paint. Boards and all preparation were supplied by the museum.
Peter Breen, October 14, 2024.
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