Melbourne is pretty well known for its street art, but this new work is going to take things to the next level – the 20th level, to be precise. It's a collaboration between Melbourne artist Matt Adnate and street art collective Juddy Roller, currently being painted onto the city-facing wall of one of the Collingwood Housing Estate's 20-storey apartment blocks.
When it's finished, Melbourne will be able to say it's home to the Southern Hemisphere's tallest mural.
What you can see in the picture above is just one-quarter of the full artwork, which is profiling four of the people who call the housing estate home. They are: six-year-old Arden Watson-Cropley (pictured above) and five-year-old Ni Na Nguyen, both living in the estate with their single-parent mothers; grandmother Badria Abdo from Ethiopia, who came to Australia as a refugee in 2006; and Yulius Antares Taime, who moved to Australia from Indonesia a little over a year ago.
Adnate, best known for his large-scale portraits of diverse community members, picked his subjects through holding a series of pop-up artist events working with the local community. He says he's trying to make sure the mural is an accurate representation of the people and communities who live within the estate.
And that's important because not only will the mural loom over the entire estate, it'll even be visible from the high-rise buildings in the middle of Melbourne's CBD.
The work was due to be finished this week, but Adnate has been delayed slightly due to the birth of his first child this week. He's spending a little bit of time with the new baby, but he should be finished with the artwork by the first week of October.