Wrapped Art Project, transformed signal cabinets (2019)

22 signal cabinets in 13 sites around Sydenham and Marrickville have been transformed with artwork enriching the inner west with diverse and strong designs created by local artists.  

Inner West Council (IWC), Lendlease Tyco Joint Venture and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) worked together to deliver The WRAPPED Art Project that adds to Council’s public art gallery and helps RMS to maintain their infrastructure in a way that deters graffiti, tagging and pasting. 

Painted cabinets can be seen all over the country but what is new about the WRAPPED Art project is that the artwork was printed on vinyl and the cabinets were then ‘wrapped’.  

Artist information

Brad Robson

Brad Robson is a Sydney-based contemporary painter and street artist, working out of his studio space and gallery in Sydney's Inner West suburb of Marrickville.

While many other local artists call Sydney home, Robson stands out as an international contemporary Australian painter with a unique voice. His cinematic portraits and streetscapes are alive with colour and movement making him one of Australia’s most exciting painters, and his studio work translates effortlessly to his giant wall murals which can be found in New York City, various cities throughout Europe, as well as his hometown of Sydney. Whilst his work is regularly exhibited in NYC and Berlin, his local studio and gallery acts as a permanent space in which many of his works can be viewed by the public.

Mary Street

Above image: m. American Dream - Brad Robson
Photographer: Daniel Kukec Photography
Website: Bradrobson.com.au

Bunkwaa

Bunkwaa is an Australian comic book artist and cartoonist. Bunkwaa’s comic book series SPEWTOWN parodies inner west living, culture, history and people. His practice also extends to street art, animation and painting. Creating images that are a sleight of hand journey into hyper-cartoon worlds, Bunkwaa’s work is a kaleidoscopic ride through pop culture and living spaces. Full of character, worlds within worlds and faces within faces, Bunkwaa’s illustrations are a playful descent into the rabbit hole.

Sydney Road

Image above: Bunkwaa with Sydney Road cabinets
Photographer: Daniel Kukec Photography
@bunkwaa @spewtown

Rhiannon Hopley

Rhiannon Hopley, born 1987, is a Sydney based multidisciplinary artist and curator.

Working primarily in the medium of photography, Hopley’s work explores the relationship between nature, the urban landscape, and the human condition.

Hopley was awarded First Prize in photography for the Gosford Art Prize in 2013 and Commended for the main prize in 2015. She has been selected as a finalist for various awards including, Percival Photographic Portrait Prize, Qld 2018, North Sydney Art Prize 2017, The 39th Alice Prize, NT 2016, Cooks Hill Gallery Newcastle, We Get By 2015, Marrickville Urban Photography 2014 and Ballarat International FotoFestival, One for the Books 2013.

Hopley has shown at Art Fairs including DENFair 2017 and selected to exhibit with .M Contemporary for their exhibition ‘No Place Like Home’, for the 2015 Australasia’s International Art Fair, Sydney Contemporary. In 2017, Hopley was awarded a grant to undertake her first residency in France. Most recently she was selected to be part of Micro Galleries International Artist Collective. Her work is held in private collections in Australia, France, and Canada.

Wardell Road

Image above: Rhiannon Hopely with Wardell Road cabinet.
Photographer: Daniel Kukec Photography
Website: www.rhphotography.design

Emily Valentine

The “Wrapped Project” inspired the artist to re-look at her sculptures and see them as photographic works.

Emily Valentine has been a practicing artist for 30 years and specialises in feather work. Through out her career the artist has photographed her own work.

The Marrickville (now Innerwest) Council selected Emily Valentine to make a photographic collage “Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane?” for their Newtown ArtSeat and this image has been reused for the “Wrapped Project”.

Emily stated that “The work was made when the new runway for the Sydney Airport was an issue in Sydenham area and my studio in Mary St was under the flight path. The feather planes were created to discuss how we as humans are now colonising the skies, and how aircraft, not birds, are now dominating our visual views and sound scapes above us. It is fitting that this work is being shown here.

The constructed images with dogs and cats are more playful, but they have a somber side. Most of the feathers used are from road kill. We love and care for our cats and dogs, but care nothing it seems, for the animals in the wild. The road kill numbers in Australia are enormous but the issue is never discussed or considered. I wish to ask the viewer to question our callous treatment of animals and birds, and ask how we sub-consciously classify animals – pet or pest, valued or worthless, beautiful or plain and why?”