Tinky Sonntag is an installation street artist who has had a wild five years since installing her first — but certainly not last — Big Bird in a Melbourne laneway. Since that initial creation hit social media, art lovers from all angles have embraced Tinky’s work.
The fine arts community honoured Tinky, including her in the Biennale of Australian Art. Street art fans have embraced her, squealing with delight when stumbling upon her hilarious scenes in the streets. And even the mainstream has given her the ultimate nod, with MECCA Cosmetics contracting her to create her very own MYER window.
It’s safe to say that Tinky Sonntag has struck a chord with her creations. And lucky for us, she gets her thrills from sharing joy with the world around her. So, we can’t imagine her slowing anytime soon.
To chat about her scenes and experiences, Tinky joined the Street Art Unearthed podcast. You can listen to the full podcast here, or read on for excerpts from the chat.
Riding on a Sunday Morning Impulse
I had been a fan of street art for a couple of years — in terms of murals and stencils and things like that. So I kind of immersed myself in the knowledge of who was out there in Melbourne. I could identify specific works on the street and know who did it. I read a lot about street artists and really became a little bit obsessed by that, and then I just started photographing and then uploading them to Instagram. I just was so obsessed. I remember my colleagues at work at that time were just like, “Oh, for God’s sake, if she tells us one more time about street art…”, honestly, I’m sure they were rolling their eyes.
This is the bit that I can’t explain. I woke up on a Sunday morning, and it was like this really weird sort of drive in me. I literally woke up and said to my husband, “I don’t know why, but we have to go to a market, and we have to find some toy soldiers and something else. And I don’t know what that is, but if we just go to the market, I’m sure I’ll find it when I see it.” He was brilliant. He just was like, “Oh, okay.”
“It was always risky when Domikaze practiced his sumo tactics in the sculpture park. It was never a good move.”
I live like an hour away from Melbourne, like from the city. We went to a local trash and treasure and the second stall. I saw it was a woman selling big jars of vintage toy soldiers. So I thought, “Well, God, there’s a sign.” I bought those. And then trotted around the market and then found this, like, 50 cent plastic Big Bird, about six centimetres high. There was nothing special about it. It just had a goofy look on its face, and it was a hard plastic, and it had its arms sticking out like it was being surprised. And I thought, “Oh my God, that’s it. That’s the thing I need.”
So I think I’d spent all of $5 on a toy soldier and a Big Bird. And I said to Carl, my husband, “Sorry, now we have to drive to Collingwood.” Which is, you know, 55 minutes away. “Because I need to do something with these in a laneway.” And again, he just was like, “Okay.” We jumped in the car, went up to town, found a laneway. I glued it all up on a windowsill or something in this laneway. Took a photo. Had a laugh. We walked off, and that was it.
It was like this weird kind of force or something. I dunno, I can’t explain it without sounding really corny. It was like you’ve found something you’re meant to do. You just know you’re meant to do it.
“After a dip in the pool, Gareth and Steve were questioning the 5-star rating at their hotel.”
So I just kept going, and the thing is, I felt there was really something in it for me because I was feeling good doing it. At the heart of it, it made me giggle. So it’s a bit like when you laugh at your own joke, it’s a bit inappropriate, but I feel like I’m always laughing at my own jokes.
When I started hanging back a little bit in the laneways and watching people interact with it — if they found it –, it gave me a real buzz. Cause it was like, “Look, they’re looking at it, they’re laughing at it. Or they’re curious about it, or they’re taking a picture, or they’re sort of pointing at it to their friend, you know?! I thought, “Oh, that’s just given someone a little moment of joy.” And that was really like, wow, that’s quite powerful.
I haven’t done it to them. It’s like I’ve done it for them, but they don’t know that. And so it’s really kind of cool. I loved that, and I still love it like that. I know I have been doing other things. I mean the galleries, I’m in the studio and making artworks and things for shows, but it’s the street art stuff I really love the most.
“Private Partz was driving Major Goolies nuts. One more balls-up and he’d have to give him the sack.”
If you’d told me five years ago, this is what was going to happen. I would have laughed you off the face of the Earth.
Approaching an Installation
Obviously, if it’s going in a gallery, then there’s an expectation that it’s going to be able to certain quality and a polished piece, sort of. But in the street, it’s like, “Ah, just superglue my fingers together for a second. And then we drop that down, I’ll drop that bit of glue over there. And then I’ll throw that in there and the grass over there.”
It’s just fun. I put it together as I go mostly.
Sometimes I have an idea of what I’m going to do. Mostly I have a scene kind of roughly in my head of how I want the pun to be or how I want the figurine to be interacting. And then I take all of that, I take some spare scenes in case that one hasn’t worked in my mind as well as I thought it might. I’ve never measured anything, or I’ve never really scouted for locations prior to. I’ll always do it on the day.
“Pierre thought it was his best work yet.”
I kind of liked that. I’m not a really someone that likes plan everything out. I really liked that kind of slapdash, a bit haphazard; I’ll grab my things today, put it in a bag and go for a day. That’s how it usually works out.
I thought visually, it was funny. And then I noticed people started putting their own perception of what it meant. I remember there was a day… I’ve got a thing for Big Bird obviously… I put together another thing with Big Bird, and I had a small mirror. It was just going to be him looking at himself in the mirror.
I can’t remember what else I was going to put with it, but I thought, well, that will be funny, cause he’s such a goofy looking character. As I was putting it together, I dropped the mirror, and the mirror cracked, so I was, you know, berating myself. And because I’m a little bit lazy I thought I’d glue it up anyway, it’s cracked, but it doesn’t matter. So I cleaned it up, and I was kicking myself and then I put it up, and people were photographing it, and it was popping up on Instagram. And there were a couple of people like saying it was such a telling piece about how we look at ourselves.
“Despite their breast intentions, the bucks’ party secretly hoped this was a booby trap.”
It created this really incredible dialogue about what they thought I was trying to imply in this ridiculous piece of artwork. I dropped the mirror. I couldn’t be bothered doing anything else. So I stuck it up. There was nothing more to it — nothing profound whatsoever. People will always put what they think the context or the subplot is, I suppose.
Buzzing off the Vibes
I like going off by myself to do them. But I’ve also been in a street art group where we would get together once a month, and we would all just create together as a group, but be out doing our own thing. It was really great company, but I guess I’m a very social person, so I would be really distracted most of the time and just spend four hours talking to everyone. Then maybe half an hour to put a scene together. Whereas if I’m by myself, obviously I don’t get distracted. Although it’s a fun distraction to talk to people.
It’s a bit like a bird, you know? Oh, there’s a shiny thing. There’s another shiny thing. Like “Oh, I haven’t talked to that person, yet.”
“Never one to bury her feelings, Josie was unimpressed by an 8am funeral service. She just wasn’t a mourning person.”
My studio is in Melbourne. So I do go in two to three days a week just to do work there. And I say that with a couple of quotation marks because I do tend to chat a little bit as well. Oh, my God. It’s bloody amazing that I get anything done when I think about it!
In my second year, I was asked to go to Wall to Wall Festival in Benalla, which is a really beautiful festival. It’s a big festival. Like really big names. It’s amazing. I got asked if I would like to be part of it, and because I’d only been in it for like a year or two at that point, I don’t think I realised fully what it meant. And again, I spent so much freaking time talking to people on the street. Cause they were people like Kaff-eine and Sofles and really big names!
Busting Back Onto the Streets
I was back there the second we were allowed. I just fanged it up there in the car, and I just remember the first day back in the studio, oddly it was almost like suddenly the last eight months, nothing happened at all. I’m back to the studio, everything’s normal. And then day two of the studio, I found it really overwhelming to be around noise, people, conversation, music. I was overstimulated by it all. And I had to go home. I was like, “My God, I can’t handle it.” It was just a bit of a weird couple of days, and then it was fine.
“Brian doubted he’d get the crossword finished; he was trying to work it out but just ended up going through the motions.”
I came to the swing of it and started planning for some shows this year, and some collaborations. I was just trying to get some ideas happening so that I could at least start 2021 knowing I had some things to go on with.
Upcoming Collabs and Exhibitions
I’m excited about doing some collaborations with people this year. On the 1st of January, I did a really fun one with N2O, a street artist who’s a good friend of mine, Joe. She does really absolutely amazing stencils. So we did something together that was really fun, and I loved it.
I’m excited about an exhibition in Geelong in March at The Hue and Cry Gallery. They’re putting together an exhibition called Prism City, and it’s with some really big, great street artists. I’m very happy to be part of that.
“It had been a shitty day for Roger; not the worst, but a solid number two. He was in a stinking mood and just needed to wipe it from his memory.”
Be sure to follow Tinky Sonntag on Instagram and Facebook to follow her awesome creations.
