How Reko Rennie went from tagging train carriages in Melbourne’s west to studying art in Paris

Music

Entertainment / Music 35 Views 0 comments

Melbourne is Australia’s street art capital — but it wasn’t always the case. Kamilaroi artist Reko Rennie remembers graffiti starting to appear on the city’s walls and in public spaces, when he was a kid growing up in Footscray in the early 80s. It was an exciting time in the city thanks to the arrival of urban street culture from New York, introduced by cult films like Breakin’ and the book Subway Art, a “landmark photographic history” by photographers Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. The young Rennie, already into hip hop and breakdancing, was immediately drawn to the world of graffiti. “It was a natural progression,” he says. He felt empowered by the whole process, from stealing spray paint to painting murals — and he wasn’t alone. The 80s saw a “massive explosion” in Melbourne’s graffiti subculture as artists made their name — literally — creating works on walls, rail carriages and train lines. “I’d already been exposed to a lot of political graffiti in the late 70s and early 80s around Melbourne … about land rights, feminism and Aboriginal rights,” he says. “It really resonated with me as a kid, that you could make a mark and have a...

0 Comments