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This mural about the Royal Wedding of 2018 between Prince Harry and Meghan existed for a short time along St Georges Rd, Preston, Australia on the actual wedding date (19th May, AEST). To me this mural is an obvious critique of the parasitic nature of the elites - especially the royals who can easily spend millions on a wedding and not stress one bit about where the money comes from. This is while billions of people around the world go starving.
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(left and above)Just showing you here the early stages of the mural production. I use a long paint roller (3 metre extension) to reach the high areas to draw so I don't have to use a ladder. The other picture shows the finished mural from a lower angle.
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(below) A mural that fight for the rights of Refugees in Australia goes up in Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
(above) This refugee mural is located on the corner of Waterloo St and Lygon St, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
Words from my Instagram Account:
"This mural is dedicated to the fight to free a refugee family taken from a small Queensland town called Biloela. They were pulled from a plane overnight (couple of weeks ago), just minutes before they were due to be deported.
Border force officials removed Tamils Nadesalingam, Priya and their two Australian-born daughters from Biloela and put them in a Melbourne detention centre.
They're being threatened with deportation by the Australian government. They've been living in Biloela, have been a crucial part of the community, and should be allowed to stay. They've done nothing wrong, yet the govt wants to send them back to Sri Lanka where their lives will be at severe risk."
See below some of the great responses on Instagram to the mural:
#letthemstay #freetherefugees#fuckpeterdutton #bringthemhere #rac#vantrudd #politicalartist #tiakass#endmandatorydetention
Words from my Instagram Account:
"This mural is dedicated to the fight to free a refugee family taken from a small Queensland town called Biloela. They were pulled from a plane overnight (couple of weeks ago), just minutes before they were due to be deported.
Border force officials removed Tamils Nadesalingam, Priya and their two Australian-born daughters from Biloela and put them in a Melbourne detention centre.
They're being threatened with deportation by the Australian government. They've been living in Biloela, have been a crucial part of the community, and should be allowed to stay. They've done nothing wrong, yet the govt wants to send them back to Sri Lanka where their lives will be at severe risk."
See below some of the great responses on Instagram to the mural:
- justinemcnamara_art If only the government could work as fast as you do in making this happen! Love your work 🙌🏻
- pellis6023So awesome man keep it up, so much love and respect for your work!!!
- sam_harlow_black_ A beautiful tribute to a family in such turmoil. These people should be welcomed not turned away. It’s frightening to think of what it might be like if my own family was in this position. Do these government people not even consider that? I wish there was a way to get this done and send them back to their life here where they contribute are happy and belong. I don’t understand ..... this is not our people and our way of life. We share, we welcome, we are mates...
- alexbhathal thank you Van. x
- currpamela Fantastic
- vnttj This is a reenactment of the Nancy Prasad story from the White Australia Policy times. When will they learn?
#letthemstay #freetherefugees#fuckpeterdutton #bringthemhere #rac#vantrudd #politicalartist #tiakass#endmandatorydetention
(Below) March 19th, 2018, a mural based on Australia's conservative Prime Minister is completed in the early hours of Monday morning, March 19th.
(above) Why did I create a mural based on Liberal Party Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull? I have been wanting to do it for a long time for a few reasons. Turnbull is yet another example of how the wealthy minor layer of society gain positions of power (let alone abuse they're pre-existing economic power as millionaires/billionaires). His history is not one that relates to the average wage worker. He was a merchant banker and director of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s. I therefore felt there was enough reason here alone to create this satirical portrayal of someone who is deemed as level headed and respectable politician. He must be shown injecting himself with the very things that keep him alive (that keeps the rest of the 1% running too), and those 'substances' place so much burden and oppression upon the rest of the poorer population. I will write more soon....just feeling a little exhausted now.
(below) #FreeAhedTamimi mural now stands in Northern Suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
(above) This is a more close-up view of a #freeahedtamimi mural based in Australia! It is located in the suburb of Coburg, Victoria, Australia).
Supporters on instagram and Facebook prefered this image of Ahed Tamimi on a wall. As per previous posts, I promised I would do another #freeahedtamimi mural but this time in a more positive light (after a previous one satirising Wonder Woman actor #galgadot).
Ahed Tamimi is Palestinian child resistance fighter from Nabi Saleh who is currently being held in an Israeli prison for daring to fight back against occupation forces with her fists. Many of her relatives and friends have either been killed, maimed or imprisoned by occupation forces, so using fists is no where near as violent as fully equipped IDF soldiers. Yet she faces years in prison like hundreds of other Palestinians.
#freeahedtamimi
#freepalestine
#vantrudd #politicalartist#endtheoccupation #endapartheid#apartheidwall #apartheidisrael
Supporters on instagram and Facebook prefered this image of Ahed Tamimi on a wall. As per previous posts, I promised I would do another #freeahedtamimi mural but this time in a more positive light (after a previous one satirising Wonder Woman actor #galgadot).
Ahed Tamimi is Palestinian child resistance fighter from Nabi Saleh who is currently being held in an Israeli prison for daring to fight back against occupation forces with her fists. Many of her relatives and friends have either been killed, maimed or imprisoned by occupation forces, so using fists is no where near as violent as fully equipped IDF soldiers. Yet she faces years in prison like hundreds of other Palestinians.
#freeahedtamimi
#freepalestine
#vantrudd #politicalartist#endtheoccupation #endapartheid#apartheidwall #apartheidisrael
(below) #FreeAhedTamimi mural (Wide Shot)
(below) Mural about the #schoolshooting at #marjorystonemandouglashighschool the first to be painted in Australia. This image is based upon the person who carried out the act of terror - Nicolas Cruz. The photo below shows the stage of the mural without the text. Scroll further below to see more about the mural.
(below) Just had to do this mural in the early hours of this morning (Sunday Feb 18), in response to the recent events in Florida, USA, at the#marjorystonemandouglashighschool .
(above) Just had to do this mural in the early hours of this morning (Sunday Feb 18), in response to the recent events in Florida, USA, at the#marjorystonemandouglashighschool . The mural is located at the corner of Webb and Smith Street, Fitzroy, Australia. Why wasn't it an act of terror? The USA is in such a mess on many fronts, a major one being heightened inequality - the rich getting richer and the poor, poorer. The 1% and the State continue to use racism to divide the working class and poor. And of course, the profits made by weapons companies outweighs human suffering. In this environment, it is always the people with darker skin - African Americans, latinx, Asians (and on top of that if you're Muslim), that are exposed to more prisons, deportations, and general race-based stigmas. And the US Administration will continue to use this to justify continued invasions abroad. Isn't it more clear than ever, the working masses and poor, no matter the colour, need to unite to fight the extreme right wing terror that #donaldtrump actively promotes?
#floridalife #floridausa #gunlaws#fightracism #fckdnld #fightcapitalism#noroomforracism #freetherefugees#nowallnoban #muslimban #nomuslimban#floridashooting #parklandhighschool
#floridalife #floridausa #gunlaws#fightracism #fckdnld #fightcapitalism#noroomforracism #freetherefugees#nowallnoban #muslimban #nomuslimban#floridashooting #parklandhighschool
(Above) I've been wanting to create a #FreeAhedTamimi mural for a while, and was inspired by the many artists around the world who've expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine, and particularly what 16 year old Ahed Tamimi symbolizes to younger and new audiences around the world. The text on the mural reads: "Even Wonder Woman is trained to imprison Palestinian children". (Please excuse the spelling mistake! I have written 'imrison' instead of 'imprison'.)
Before explaining why Wonder Woman is used in this mural, Christopher Anderton, from Red Flag writes about Ahed Tamimi :
"Ahed Tamimi, a 16 year old Palestinian activist from the village of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank will be sentenced up to 10 years in prison for slapping and shoving an Israeli soldier if found guilty by a military tribunal."
"Ahed's situation is commonplace. The Israeli military detains on average two Palestinian teens per night, and Ahed is one of more than 450 Palestinians held in indefinite 'administrative detention'."
Buy a poster based on this image.
To read more of this article, click here.
Wonder Woman is used in the mural to satirize the Israeli actor Gal Gadot who played Wonder Woman in the 2017 global movie release. She was trained by the Israeli Defense Force and is known to stand by the IDF's mission of repressing Palestinian people. For the general context of this, you can read this article.
When creating this mural, on an aesthetic level, I chose use a slight bit of anamorphism, where you can view it at the location from an angle where the mural will appear clearer as opposed to if you were standing directly in front of it. This was partly a logistical tactic because you can't really view the whole mural properly when standing directly in from of it because of a lack of space.
(below) A tribute mural to hip-hop group A.B. Original
(below) Anti-Trump Mural in Melbourne's Censored by local Council
(above) The Censoring of my #Trumptank mural (corner Bunbury and Moreland Streets, Footscray, Australia). Please read this article by Star Weekly for a fuller story and other art that has been censored by the local council.
Buy a poster based on this image.
Buy a poster based on this image.
(below) This mural called "Dutton - Border Stalker" was completed early November, 2017. It is located on a very busy street - the corner of Webb and Smith Streets Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. The mural refers to Immigration Minister of Australia Peter Dutton who is directly responsible for the extremely harsh and violent treatment of refugees on the offshore prison on Manus Island. For further information read this article from Red Flag: https://redflag.org.au/node/5976
The text on the mural reads: Dutton Border Stalker. Capability: Terror, Fuel: Racism / Economic Breakdown, Target: Refugees, Cost: $3 Billion p.a.
The text on the mural reads: Dutton Border Stalker. Capability: Terror, Fuel: Racism / Economic Breakdown, Target: Refugees, Cost: $3 Billion p.a.
(below) Below are some pencil sketches that show my concept development for the mural. As you can see, I didn't include the refugees in the foreground in the final mural because I wanted to convey that the viewer was subject to Dutton's wrath.
(below) Mural at my old high school!
Here's me standing in front of a new mural (completed November 17, 2017) at Nambour State College, Queensland, Australia. This was the high school I used to go to, so it was a pleasure to create this for the students and staff. I would love to have seen a mural like this being painted when I was a student at this school. This is probably one of my more cryptic murals because of certain constraints placed on the creative process. The mobile phone in the mural incorporates an actual window into it (see early photos of wall in "street mural" section of this site), and I've used this as a tool to delve deep into our consciousness as human beings, alienated and struggling to survive individually inside this harsh, unforgiving economic system called capitalism. The extremely high cost of living (eg. high rent costs) is crippling many poor families of working class background. That's the life of many young people (sadly increasing), yet we're clearly not alone in this, and that's why I've painted the rest of the wall with a large concrete barrier that is being broken by people working together. So, the phone isn't really a bad thing either, as we need it to communicate, and it does spread knowledge quickly between friends about world-wide events. The wall here references the apartheid wall that the state of Israel maintains to crush the freedoms of Palestinians. The wall is also symbolic of the barrier that the US administration uses to crush the spirit of Mexicans as they attempt to migrate over the border into the USA. In a nutshell, the wall represents how the ruling class tries to divide us all, and therefore disable us from creating a better world.
Here's me standing in front of a new mural (completed November 17, 2017) at Nambour State College, Queensland, Australia. This was the high school I used to go to, so it was a pleasure to create this for the students and staff. I would love to have seen a mural like this being painted when I was a student at this school. This is probably one of my more cryptic murals because of certain constraints placed on the creative process. The mobile phone in the mural incorporates an actual window into it (see early photos of wall in "street mural" section of this site), and I've used this as a tool to delve deep into our consciousness as human beings, alienated and struggling to survive individually inside this harsh, unforgiving economic system called capitalism. The extremely high cost of living (eg. high rent costs) is crippling many poor families of working class background. That's the life of many young people (sadly increasing), yet we're clearly not alone in this, and that's why I've painted the rest of the wall with a large concrete barrier that is being broken by people working together. So, the phone isn't really a bad thing either, as we need it to communicate, and it does spread knowledge quickly between friends about world-wide events. The wall here references the apartheid wall that the state of Israel maintains to crush the freedoms of Palestinians. The wall is also symbolic of the barrier that the US administration uses to crush the spirit of Mexicans as they attempt to migrate over the border into the USA. In a nutshell, the wall represents how the ruling class tries to divide us all, and therefore disable us from creating a better world.
(above) View from the left side of mural
(above) Here's me in front (photo by M. Dryden)
(above) Detail of left side of mural
(above) Detail of right side of mural
(above) Here's the wall and the window in the early stages of development
(below) #Trumptank mural hits the streets of Footscray, Australia
(above) Here's a #trumptank mural (10 metres long x 5 metres high) completed early November 2017, on Bunbury Street, Footscray, Victoria, Australia. It features American Footballer and anti-racism activist Colin Kaepernick (number 7) and local Footscray Resident Ricardo Jorquera (second from left). Slowly but surely, I'm introducing more characters into the #trumptank murals and paintings to show that global resistance will hopefully keep growing against the US administration, the capitalist class, and their aggressive agenda waged on the people of the USA and world-wide.
Buy a poster based on this image.
Buy a poster based on this image.
(below) Anti-Pauline Hanson mural in Footscray, Australia, censored for being 'offensive'.
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#trumptank mural is unleashed on the streets of Melbourne (and Chicago, USA)!
(above) #trumptank projected onto wall opposite Trump Towers in Chicago, USA, July 2017, by activist group refusefascism.org
(above) The first #trumptank mural to hit the streets. Hosier Lane, Melbourne, June, 2017. (photo by Dean Sunshine)
(above) The first #trumptank mural in Hosier Lane, of Melbourne, June, 2017.
Buy a poster based on this image.
Buy a poster based on this image.
(above) An early concept drawing - pencil on paper, 2017
(above) An early concept drawing - pencil on paper, 2017
(below) Bunnings workers versus the bosses. (Low paid workers versus large corporations.) Completed May 2017.
(Above and below)
This mural features workers from one of the biggest chain corporations in Australia: Bunnings (which is a subsidiary of Wesfarmers). The hardware store workers have taken hold of some of the tools inside the warehouses to defend themselves against the billionaire corporate rats. It is within the context of the recent official cuts to penalty rates that will see worker's rights to extra weekend pay further reduced. This mural was designed by Van T Rudd and painted on the wall by Van T Rudd and Steve May. The mural is about 20 metres long and 2 metres high. See below the centre, left and right ends of the mural. And see below a short video of the mural and a map link if you'd like to know its exact location.
This mural features workers from one of the biggest chain corporations in Australia: Bunnings (which is a subsidiary of Wesfarmers). The hardware store workers have taken hold of some of the tools inside the warehouses to defend themselves against the billionaire corporate rats. It is within the context of the recent official cuts to penalty rates that will see worker's rights to extra weekend pay further reduced. This mural was designed by Van T Rudd and painted on the wall by Van T Rudd and Steve May. The mural is about 20 metres long and 2 metres high. See below the centre, left and right ends of the mural. And see below a short video of the mural and a map link if you'd like to know its exact location.
(Above) Bunnings workers against the bosses and cuts to penalty rates (right side of mural) (May 2017), by Van T Rudd and Steve May
Where to find this mural? It's close to Northcote Train Station, on Scott St, Northcote, Melbourne, Australia (See google maps below). If you're too lazy to go to the exact location on foot, you can see it from the Train as you go by!
(below) #BringthemHere refugee mural hits the laneways of Melbourne's Western suburbs
Where exactly is this Refugee mural? Please see the map below:
(below) Trump-Tank image is finally a mural!
(Above) The Trump-Tank has finally become a mural. it was exhibited from April 13th to April 16 for the annual Marxism Conference 2017, in Melbourne along with great murals by Sam Wallman and Slimone. Over 1,000 people attended this unique and radical left wing event.
Although this mural was indoors, the next one will be in a public place. I will keep you posted. Cheers.
(Below) New #CUB55 mural at Trades Hall, Victoria, Australia
(Above and below) This 15 metre long mural at Trades Hall Victoria (carpark) commemorates the victory of ordinary workers versus the ruling elites. It is based on the sackings of 55 Carlton United Brewery workers (#CUB55) by the CUB corporation. The workers were invited back to work on a 65% pay reduction, but they said NO and with the help of their unions waged a fight back using strikes, pickets (see images below) and boycotts to force the company to allow them to go back to work with full pay and conditions. Well, after 6 long months...they won. I was fortunate enough to be invited to paint the initial protest murals on the picket site shipping containers (see images further below). The image below show the mural at Trades Hall in its entirety.
Where is this mural? See below for exact location of the mural (Victorian Trades Hall carpark)
(below) Murals in support of the #CUB55 completed (dec 2016)
(above) This is me at work painting a mural during the #CUB55 protest (2016)
(above) October 17th 2016 - I Finally got this mural done for the #CUB55 ! at the Abbottsford brewery protest site, Melbourne, Australia. The protesting CUB (Carlton and United Breweries) workers and supporters are going strong after 55 workers were sacked and invited back to work but with a 65% pay cut.
(above) This photo was taken right at the end of the protest campaign, December 2016 at the Abbottsford Brewery site. That's why there's no one around. This particular mural makes fun of the Carlton Draft (beer) Draught horses. The normal logo show them strong. Here they're weak and dying of thirst.
Where are these murals now? See the pictures and map below - they're now safely at the CFMEU (Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union) Education and Training Unit, 262, Port Melbourne, Victoria Australia.
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(Below) Donald Trump spews hatred from a pile of money
(above) This mural was completed in 2016, not long after Trump had won the US Presidential Elections. It has since been painted over by the local council. The owner of the fence has fought the local council to have the mural re-installed. So far the council has admitted they erased it and have sent apologies to the house owner, and it looks like I will be able to re-install this mural! I hope it happens! Once it is re-installed, I'll put its exact location here should you want to see it.
(below) Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are sinking on the same expensive yacht
(below) Refugee mural in Melbourne's western suburbs
Oct 2016 - This mural on a fence in west Yarraville, Melbourne, Australia (not there now unfortunately) supports the rights of refugees to seek safe asylum around the world. This particular one is based on Syrian refugees escaping war and taking perilous and desparate journeys toward European shores where they are treated like vermin.
(above) A rough sketch of the refugee mural
2014 - This mural was part of a larger collaborative work with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). The mural was outside the VCA on a construction wall and it clearly stated its support for the campaign against the racist closures of Aboriginal Communities (in Australia). It was a VCA Student Association project with the support of the Wilin Centre, VCA.
