Fremantle Street Art

We love showcasing where we live and revel in being a tourist in our hometown. For us, there is nothing better than when we can do both for free. Today the streets were calling, so we headed down to the vibrant culture of Fremantle, to photograph some amazing street art.

Update: The above murals have now been repainted.

We love the vivid colours and the uniqueness of street art on some of the old buildings in Fremantle is nothing short of amazing when used as a canvas. Street art is often confused as graffiti, but street art is a way to express a notion and point of view, like other artworks. This is unlike graffiti which is just tags and non discript scribble. Fremantle Street art is actually effective in preventing or at least reducing graffiti and the costs associated with removing it. Discuss street art and you get a wide range of opinions from those strongly against it, to others openly advocating its ability to make a place unique.

We had the honour of watching the famous Fremantle artist, Horatio T Birdbath while he was working on this intricately detailed mural. He’s been touching up the elaborate detail of his work on the back of Gino’s café in Fremantle for many years.

We could never tire of wandering around these historic streets photographing the quaint and quirky street arts on the old, mostly deserted buildings. My favourite would have to be the massive mural on South Terrace and several passers-by clearly were as impressed with the details of Fremantle’s largest mural as we were. There were so many details in this quirky series that we easily spent an hour there.

The power of art transported us to exotic places from across the globe. as our eyes were tricked in a trompe l’oeil style. A humongous still life painting that appears 3D came to life with the illusion of reality, deceiving our eyes and transforming this otherwise dull warehouse exterior to colourful vistas, all with incredible attention to detail.

Almost every scene from China, France, Africa and India, has a little Westie dog, either sitting on a chair, hiding in a basket, hanging in the washing or sleeping on a rug, that I lost count how many ‘scenes’ he’s in. There are also meerkats, penguins, a cat, exotic birds, even an elephant.

From the giant numbat, to the Alice in Wonderland wall, the secret entrance of the Monk or the huge mural at East West Designs, Fremantle’s street art simply blew us away.

Whether public art is a passing fad or it will stand the test of time along with Aboriginal art and Michangelo to be persevered and be around to show future generations, time will tell. But urban street art is for now, an essential expression of our culture and a great reflection of our past and present. To be standing in King’s Square to see timeless architecture and bronze sculptures side by side with modern murals sanctioned for their artistic merit by City of Fremantle, is fabulous. There is an abundance of funky creativity in Fremantle and it is great to see aerosol art creating such a buzz.

Update: The above two pieces have been removed

Certain pockets of Fremantle and the streets surrounding the iconic Woolstores, famous for its skate and urban art scene, are bursting at the seams with joyful colour bringing images to a wide audience. Visual art created in public spaces once was unsanctioned, but today gives artists a voice to express themselves through their weapon of choice, spraycans, artline pens or even a chisel. Urban street art was previously dominated by graffiti styles and is now inspired by pop cult, comics, feminine doll like figures and bold colourful works.

Which one was your favourite street art or is there one we didn’t capture here?

If you enjoyed this post you may want to check out some street art in other parts of the world and in our own hometown, Perth.

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