Rebranding Hobart
This was a 2nd year Visual Communication project, where students were to rebrand the city of Hobart. I wanted to approach this project in a personally engaging way, expressing some of my own feelings about Hobart, whilst keeping it fun and quirky. I adopted the modality and approach of street art, by using irony, 'taking the piss' out of some aspects of Hobart, and making light of it, showing that Hobartians don't take themselves too seriously. Students were encouraged to avoid typical approaches of logos and slogans.
This work was exhibited at the Hobart City Council in 2011 as digital projections, multiple TV screens, and printed onto banners.
It was also showcased as part of the University of Tasmania's School of Art open day in 2011.
This image presents Hobart's geographical isolation as a positive aspect - as if the Australian mainland was to become overrun by zombies, Hobart would be safe - or at least Launceston would become overrun before Hobart.
This puts a positive spin on the often negative views of Hobart's isolation, as well as having a joke about the rivalry between Launceston and Hobart.
This image presents Hobart's underground scene as literally being under the ground - keeping true to its roots, and not becoming mainstream as seen in other cities. The image is of graffiti in Hobart's rivulet - which is literally underneath the city.
I feel there is something special about how Hobart can appear plain or boring at first, but delve deep into the dark tunnels beneath, and there is a world of amazing street art to be discovered.
This is a piss take on well-known jokes and stereotypes about Tasmanians. Mainland Australians love to joke about Tasmania, as it is a small island state somewhat isolated from the rest of the country. Tasmania has a fairly small population, so mainlanders love telling jokes about Tasmanians marrying their Cousins and the classic "two-headed Tasmanians".
This embraces the jokes and stereotypes of Tasmanians, and also the classic singlet wearing, beer drinking Hobart Bogan.
This presents a not-so-pretty Hobart cityscape. As the text suggests, Hobart really does have beautiful surroundings such as a river, mountain, and the largest percentage of vegetation for any city in Australia. So even if some of the buildings in the city are a little ugly, at least there are nice surroundings.
This is a comment about an issue that has since been resolved. At the time, the building pictured featured red awnings (not green), and there was a huge uproar about how they were an eyesore and made that area of the city look ugly. This was basically a piss take about the attitudes towards the red awnings.
This is a comment about the social side of Hobart. Some Hobartians tend to be somewhat ignorant and blase towards certain issues, so I presented a typical Hobartian attitude toward Global Warming - whilst presenting Hobart's uniquely hilly landscape. The idea is, that if/when sea levels rise, "Hobart can just move higher up into the hills - so who cares!"
This is another comment on Hobart's social issues. This image shows an iconic Hobart personality often referred to as "the pirate". He is well known because he does not conform to any of the typical Hobart fashions. I spoke to him, and he often gets abused and ridiculed for l different, whereas he can walk down the street in other cities and nobody will even blink at him.
On a lighter level, this image embraces Hobart's closed-in conformity and presents it as a place to be able to stand out from the crowd.
This is an image of Salamanca - one of Hobart's most iconic locations, and a very popular night spot. However, as the text suggests, Hobart is a city that does sleep - even in the busier parts.
This embraces criticism about Hobart. Although it may not be the party capital of the world, at least you can get to sleep in the busier parts of the city on a saturday night.
The last known Thylacine / Tasmanian Tiger died in a Hobart zoo - a sad fact that I do not consider something to be proud of.
Hobart prides itself on the fact that Errol Flynn (a famous movie star from the early 1900s) came from Hobart.
Here I have presented the iconic yet saddening photograph of the last known Thylacine, and used irony to say "well, yes - Hobart does have a dark history, but hey, lets not worry about that because at least we gave the world Errol Flynn!"
