Buchanan, South Australia

Transcription

G'day I'm Toby Richardson, I teach photography in the School of Art, Architecture and Design and this mural is called A Splash of Colour for George Street. I think one of the first seeds sown was listening to what students had to say during UniJam and students particularly within this campus were saying that they thought it just needed some enlivening. The new Vice Chancellor supported this idea because he is listening to the students from that UniJam forum. It was quite exciting, something new for the Uni and I think quite new for Adelaide. We were quite excited to brighten up the campus. Splash Adelaide decided to support this project because it was something that was activating an underutilised area of the city and it was also promoting artists, students and the Uni and some of the great work that can be done in Adelaide. We were asked to submit our individual concepts for the road then we came together and had a one day workshop where we nutted out a couple of final designs but I think the influence mostly was to add colour using simple geometric shapes, but in a fun way. From those proposals we selected students to work with Steve Wilson, myself and artists Tom Buchanan and Andy McIntire. So we had students from Architecture, from Interior, students from Visual Arts and Visual Communication. I studied Industrial Design for a year before I studied Visual Arts and Photography and that really informed how I looked at the project. It was an interesting opportunity to use my creative skills on a medium that I am not used to working with. I thought it was a really good project and something that is leaving a mark on the street. I wanted it to be sort of fresh and modern and bright. To have it here in Adelaide is something really cool I think. It was hard work but it was lots of fun, yeah it didn't take long there was a team of ten. We all got along really well and it came out great and everyone chipped in and did their part I couldn't be happier with the group I got to work with. Learning to work collaboratively, I think is one of the major things. Students were working to a pretty tight brief, within a short parameter of time. Working with clients, liasing with clients, liasing with one another, having the opportunity to see a little idea grow into a really big idea and actually physically see that on a landscape of this scale, of this magnitude, is fantastic for them, great for their portfolio, great for future projects. I think the final art work is fantastic. It really shows what can be achieved with a small group of people that are all keen and eager to change the city and shows what can happen when students work with established artists and they can create something that is on such a large scale yet still looks very professional. It looks great and I think everyone did really, really well. I think it's wonderful, just the way that it engages people who move through it. I think it just engergises the community. It's just vibrant and playful and I think Adelaide needs a bit more. We would love the opportunity to do more. We would like to see the work get off the ground and up some walls. We are happy to do it anywhere. The entire creative team would like to thank UniSA for the opportunity, for the backing, for the belief that we could actually make a difference and to Splash, Adelaide City Council for being part partner.