Plan B. (AC/DC LANE SIGN, PART 2).

If you read this, you'd know all about my attempt to thunderbolt the ACDC Lane sign downtown.
And if you know my Mom, she'd tell you I'm like a dog when I've made my mind up about something, so there was like, zero chance of me giving up when some assmonkey came along and removed it.


My little thunderbolt in happier times.

So I decided to hit up the one on the other side of the street, only this time, I had something a little more permanent in mind...I warned you I was up to no good!

 
The other side of the street.

I'm going to take you step by step through the process, so you can all try and emulate me, and get busted and thrown in jail, while I kick back on a Rarotongan holiday.

Ready? Here we go...


Find yourself a street sign, and take it.


Flip its ass on over, and draw out your shapes.

 
Cut out your shape with a saw.

 
Give up on the handstyles and break out the power tools. It's what AC/DC would want.


SHAZAM !!!

 
Lay it out on some adhesive vinyl sheeting, and mark out your shape with a chinagraph pencil.


Cut your shape out...


...And stick it on !



Cut out and stick on some edging...


...All the way around, lazy-ass.

 
Throw your name on that sucka, so niggaz be knowin' who to respect.

 
Dynabolt it to a wall with a hammer drill in the rain. It's no fun unless you can die doing it.

 
Step back and bask in the fruits of your labour. 


Here's what AC/DC's record label said: read me!
Here's what Fasterlouder.com said: read me!
Here's what The music.com.au said: read me!
Here's what Ultimate Guitar.com said: read me!
Here's what Mess and Noise said: read me!
Here's what ThomasR said: read me!
Here's what MelbourneLefty said: read me!
Here's what The Age said: read me!

You may have to register. If you can't be bothered, here it is direct.

Write here, right now

November 17, 2004

Stencils and paintings on a wall outside Vanbars in Carlton, left; and on two sections of wall in Hossier Lane, city.
Photo: AAP

Street art is taking over Melbourne's laneways and walls, both by stealth and with council approval, writes Patrick Donovan.

It was a victory for rock fans when the Melbourne City Council voted to honour AC/DC by naming a city laneway after them in September. But the street sign erected didn't look quite right. Legislation had prohibited the band's iconic lightning bolt or a slash from separating the AC from the DC.

So one fan decided to take the matter the into his own hands. Knifeyard, a local artist, made a massive lightning bolt out of the same metal used in street signs and bolted it above and below the ACDC street sign with a hammer drill.

"I didn't think the sign looked right - they didn't even leave a space between the AC and the DC," says Knifeyard. "So I thought about how I could add to it without defacing it. "I was thinking of going to the council to seek approval, but that idea lasted three seconds because I had heard how long it took to get the name change.

"People feel ownership of AC/DC Lane, and it's pretty ugly at the moment, just full of dumpsters. I hope that my sign will be a seed and more street art will start radiating from there."

Knifeyard is part of a growing subculture of resourceful, renegade street artists who are reclaiming public spaces to display their lightning bolts, stencils, posters, stickers and paint bombing. Some of the more striking images you might find on the back of toilet doors, down alley ways, on buildings and building sites are George Bush saying "Stop me before I kill again"; Phillip Ruddock with fangs, in a coffin; and a picture of a bearded Jesus with the word "Jesus shaves".

Most are done illegally, with artists working in the dark of the night. But others have discovered that they can work within the system, and even get paid for it. The Melbourne City Council has a zero-tolerance policy on graffiti on council buildings and property, and currently runs a "removal incentive program" where they provide ratepayers with free paint vouchers and graffiti removal kits.

But it also supports the local art scene by offering a number of grants as part of its Public Art Program and Melbourne's Laneway Commissions, which are aimed at brightening up the nooks and crannies of the city that are home to so many restaurants, galleries and bars.

"The laneways are Melbourne's hidden treasures and these artworks enrich and enliven them," Lord Mayor John So said at the June launch. "These artworks turn Melbourne's humble lanes into a forum for comment, questioning and enchantment."

Modified ACDC Lane sign in the city.
Picture:Estelle Grunburg

The CityLights project in Hosier Lane, off Flinders Street, has benefited from working within the system. CityLights project director Andrew Mac often bypasses the council, going directly to the owners of buildings for permission. The National Australia Bank and the Forum Theatre are two businesses that have been happy for him and his artists to decorate their city walls.

In August, Mac was approached by the Multiplex building company which had a problem with graffiti artists "tagging" (leaving their signature) on their site in Sydney's George Street. They figured that graffiti artists were less likely to vandalise a wall of art so they commissioned CityLights artists to paint a "live wall work". So far, it has stopped the tagging, and the wall will eventually be divided up and sold, with profits going to artists and street kids.

Mac says street art is giving artists the power to communicate outside the mainstream media.

"It's a new information channel. The channels of the media are in fewer and fewer hands, and street art has the ability to communicate ideas, discussion and critical comment."

Stencil art is certainly the most popular form of street art in Melbourne at the moment. An image can serve several functions: advertising, a tribute, political protest, anti-corporate statements, or subversive or irreverent messages. It's cheap and easy: you create an image, cut out a stencil, hold on a wall and spray.

One of the earliest stencils to appear around the streets of Melbourne was made by artist Matt Morrow, whose piece was inspired by the AFL selling advertising space on the sacred Sherrin football.

"I was disgusted to see the McDonald's golden arches flying around on the match footy, so I made a stencil of Ronald McDonald rooting a kangaroo from behind with the words 'Stop it' and sprayed it all around Richmond," Morrow says.

"I love the instant nature of stencil art," he adds. "You whack the plastic stencil up and you have a beautiful instant picture. It's much nicer and quicker than graffiti tags that people usually labour over for hours. And because it's so quick, it's harder to get caught."

Street art is a rapidly mutating form. We could soon see the latest trend in Europe - abstract road paintings - on Melbourne's roads, and don't be surprised if guitars start jumping out at you on street corners.

"I want to start making guitars and sticking them all over the city," says Knifeyard, on a roll after his lightning bolt success "to remind passers-by that Melbourne is rock city".

______________________________________

So there you go!

I'm not posting what Beat wrote about it, because they called me a "stencil artist", which is about the worst insult you could throw at a graff writer.

By the way, it's "knifey".
Knifeyard is a rock band, fools.



This is knifey, from 'the internet'.