The Van Gogh exhibition is attracting the hordes to the National Gallery of Victoria, but you can see 'high' art outdoors, for free. For the next year, a work by Indigenous artist Ray Traplin will hang from a skyscraper being built in Little Lonsdale Street.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It's guaranteed to be a moving piece - the work, called Life in the Ocean, depicting turtles, fish and snakes, will rise as the Fabric hotel and apartment tower grows, from the 10th to the 39th floor.
The piece was installed by crane and a dangling cage called a "man box" on Sunday as part of Crema Constructions' Gallery in the Sky project, in which the company purchases a work by a budding artist, makes a donation to their chosen charity, and hangs a giant version of the piece on a construction site.
Traplin's piece will benefit The Torch art program for Indigenous prisoners and ex-prisoners, of which he is a member.
Traplin's 1.8m wide original hangs in Crema's Port Melbourne boardroom. And when the building is finished, the blown-up version will be given to The Torch.
Crema Constructions associate director Katya Crema said the 20-metre-wide, seven-metre-high, west-facing print will be most visible to people heading east down Little Lonsdale Street. "The best spot at the moment is on the corner of Queen and Little Lonsdale," she said.
Ms Crema said it was "something for Melburnians to enjoy, as they're driving past or walking past" but hopes the exposure will spur Traplin "to continue to produce artwork and sell it and make a living out of it."
It is Crema's third Gallery in the Sky piece: the first, in 2015 was a piece by street artist Adnate on the Marco Apartments in Southbank; and the second, earlier this year, was a Joshua Miels work at 661 Chapel Street, South Yarra.
The program will continue with each new Crema construction site.
