LOCAL NEWS: How The Inner West’s Perfect Match Program Is Brightening Up Our Streets
By Saskia
Have you ever seen the incredible Perfect Match murals? If you haven’t, you should go and see it.
Perfect Match is an Inner West Council program designed to stop graffiti. If your house has an empty wall on its exterior that was being tagged frequently, the Perfect Match program is the perfect solution. You can ask the council to put a mural there to discourage the graffiti.
Deputy Mayor, Phillipa Scott, explains why Perfect Match is such a hit. “It’s really good at enlivening somewhere that might seem a little dead. It’s still good for minimizing graffiti, but what I like most about the program is that it adds a little bit of fun into somewhere unexpected,” she told Press Gang News.
The Perfect Match art can be done almost anywhere, which is another great aspect of it. You might see it on a morning walk in a very dim, dark area, lacking energy. And that’s the part that lots of people are enjoying.
The art is chosen in a very strategic way. The artist and the house owner come up with the idea together, to represent a certain part of their lives.
“We do want the people who own the building to feel like they have a personnel connection to the art,” Scott explains.
There is a mural of a an orange grove painted on a house Annandale that is a good example. “That house used to be part of the orange grove in Annandale. So they’ve done something that reflects the local history,” says Scott.
The Deputy Mayor also said that she liked the way murals are popping up everywhere. At Kegworth, there are two amazing murals, a Kookaburra (representing our school crest) by Sam Hall and a turtle by Sam Hall and Zac Bennett- Brook. These murals were gifts to the school from the 2021 and 2022 Year six groups.
Scott explains that the Kegworth murals are a great example of someone seeing a mural somewhere and being inspired. “You don’t have to be part of the council. Everyone can create art. That’s the best part about it,” she says.
So this artwork program is designed to create art in unexpected places, and give light, in areas that need it. We can all contribute by admiring the art that has already been painted.
Image: Together We Planned” by Sid Tapia at 12 Tebbutt St, Leichhardt
