Thursday 23 February 2012

TSB #1


You may well ask what TSB stands for. This is one of them. A traffic signal box, and they are dotted all over Brisbane and the suburbs controlling the sequence of traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. These drab, grey boxes are often a target for graffiti and in a bid to discourage vandals, the city council set up the initiative to allow artists to apply to paint them. They are a great outlet for artists and certainly cheer up an otherwise boring metal box. I particularly like this one with it's take on a famous Australian poem 'My Country' by Dorothea MacKellar.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me!


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's just superb!

Genie -- Paris and Beyond said...

Very colorful! I read about Ms. MacKellar a year or so ago after seeing the poem on a friend's blog. I was amazed that it was written when she was only 19 years old.

Bises,
Genie

Dianne said...

Certainly a lot better than graffiti Al .... A great idea!

AL said...

Genie: She also wrote it when she was in England.

Dianne: Unfortunately some of them still get a bit of graffiti, but most are left for us to enjoy. There are some very good ones about and I'll bring you more in time.

Mark R said...

Boring old Britain is just about getting round to clever ideas like this; and it helps that the work is so professional.

I enjoyed the "sweeping planes" pun too! (Perhaps the artist is being a little cynical - about how the wide country is now dominated by buzzing planes above it? Perhaps. Or maybe it's just me!)

AL said...

The thing I like about this is that anyone can apply to paint a design, not just professional artists. They are a great asset to the city artscape.