This post may sadden you, it may disgust you, or it might even anger you. But what you are seeing here is the norm for Newtown. Graffiti is encouraged in this suburb. I am sure they would like 'quality' graffiti, but as you will see, that is rarely the case.
This is the sandstone wall which fences off St Stephen's church and graveyard. Originally, the graveyard had been a cemetery, with the church being added as an after-thought. The cemetery was fenced off by a group of businessmen to turn a profit in 1848. And, they succeeded! The cemetery (which was just over 12 acres) was closed in 1867 having buried about 17,000 bodies. The church was built near the main gates to the cemetery in 1874, and over the decades the cemetery fell to wrack and ruin. Eventually, three quarters of Camperdown Cemetery was resumed in 1948 for Camperdown Memorial Rest Park which opened in 1951. The bodies were left in the ground; just the headstones moved in behind this sandstone wall.
Tomorrow, come and look on the inside of this fence.
10 comments:
Once they said that the wall was the newspaper of the people. 'No news is good news' is another saying. Seeing a lot of graffity I sometimes agree with it. Beautiful graffity is hard to find. But mauìybe I just don't understand the language.
Curious for the other side...
I think the people buried in the cemetery would prefer lots of human companionship to headstones any day.
As for graffiti, some graffitists (my word) are excellent artists with nowhere else to display their work. Then there are people with messages, and then there are vandals. So who knows?
A very interesting post, Julie.
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel
As you say, it's not very good quality graffiti. Surprised they haven't commissioned a graffiti mural here like they have in other parts of Newtown.
There is a section of better quality graffiti within the Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Jim. Just not on the wall surrounding the graveyard. It is a massive wall, and I guess expensive to organise. This just seems to be layer upon layer of tagging. Not my favourite thing ... I will show you some of the rest, after our little peek around the graves tomorrow.
Sometimes I don't know what to think anymore...
Its definitely not what i'd call Street Art but just a bunch of squiggly lines that look like a dog's breakfast :-).
Interesting that it would be invited...
It's messy - looking forward to the peep behind the wall tomorrow.
I think the time has come to ban all spray cans of paint. We did very well without them for a long time.
Looks like there's new grafitti there since I last visited. Am particularly fond of Alan Rickman.
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