Tallest mural in the southern hemisphere is taking shape in Collingwood
The tallest mural in the southern hemisphere is taking shape on a public housing block in Melbourne’s Collingwood.
Artist Matt Adnate has painted two of the four faces set to adorn his latest work, covering 20-storeys, being the southern wall of 240 Wellington Street, about two kilometres north-east of the city.
One of the faces is of Badria Abdo, an Ethiopian who arrived in Australia in 2006 after more than seven years in a Kenyan concentration camp. The other is of a six-year old boy.
A Vietnamese girl will also be painted on the building as will an Indonesian man who arrived in Australia last year.
Adnate was commissioned for the Collingwood project by street art collective Juddy Roller, which is behind the Silo Art Trail, across 200 kilometres in regional Victoria and said to be the country’s largest outdoor gallery.
The state government is contributing $150,000 via an art grant for the Collingwood project. It controls the entire block of land spreading between Wellington, Perry and Were streets, and Hoddle Street, at the Abbotsford suburb border.
The Collingwood College is in the immediate vicinity
Mr Adnate’s most famous work to date is, arguably, a 23 metre portrait of an indigenous boy (pictured, left), which the City of Melbourne council commissioned in 2014 for Hosier Lane.
