Hosier and Rutledge Lanes—where anyone can go and make art and other stories

Abstract

Hosier and Rutledge Lanes in Melbourne are concentrated areas of street art, widely understood as places where anyone is free to add art to the wall. During a group installation to celebrate International Women’s Day, the lanes revealed their darker sides, challenging the author’s rosy view. This encounter led research to find other stories of the lanes in relation to inclusion and exclusion. The lanes revealed themselves as a place where current issues and contradictions of public life
and public art are brought into the spotlight. Because Hosier and Rutledge lanes are controversial sites of beauty, fame, and vice they draw the limelight of the media and act as pedagogical sites which stimulate debate and argument.