Melbourne City Bollards
Over the past month or so here in Melbourne, 5 tonne square cubes of concrete have been appearing at some of the most iconic spots in the CBD and they look terrible.
Bollards as they are known, is Melbourne’s temporary solution to the recent use of vehicles as weapons in densely pedestrianised areas around the world. A terrible incident happened in Melbourne in January this year when a maniac drove his car up the Bourke Street mall and killed and injured many people. It wasn’t terrorism related, but it still highlighted just how easy it could be for copycat incidents to occur.
Apparently we’re going to have to be living with the ugly bollards for up to a year before the city builds a more aesthetically pleasing solution. The Melbourne CBD has never been one of my favourite places to visit, mainly due to being so crowded. It’s ironic to have these new ‘safety’ features installed that in a way make you feel more unsafe by being a constant visual reminder about how dangerous it can be to be in crowded areas.
Like most things in Melbourne that are plain and concrete, it doesn’t take long for people to want to start painting them. Melbourne is famous for it’s graffiti filled laneways, which are now tourist attractions. I think it looks great. There is something about standing in the narrow streets and being engulfed with the huge walls of colour on either side of you. Even for most people that hate ‘tagging,’ it takes on a different feeling by seeing it in this setting and at this scale.
The Bollards however, just don’t look right when they become street art. In the context of commercialised, open areas, they look so out of place.
I appreciate the sentiment of people who are trying to ‘reclaim’ the bollards as places for art. But in my opinion, it’s making an ugly addition look even uglier. Many of the bollards have been painted, stencilled and tagged. Some have political messages, some have even had knitted woollen covers placed over the top. It’s all just a bit of a mess — and it’s still early days, who knows how they will end up looking after a year.
I hope that the city is thinking of ways of making the bollards more attractive while they are here. I do like the idea of beautifying them in someway, but perhaps this could be done in a more organised way through commissioned artists.
I’m reminded of the painted electricity boxes that I have seen in Melbourne suburbs. Like the bollards, they too are an ugly necessity, but councils have been commissioning artists to paint them for a few years now.
Perhaps something more organised like this is what is required. If we have to live with the bollards for another 10 months, surely there is something more creative that we can do with them.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to connect and get in touch with me about anything and everything: thomas@thomasmakesstuff.com | www.thomasmakesstuff.com | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
