It was such a pleasure to have DOES back in our ‘River City’, in May, for the Brisbane Street Art Festival. The now annual public art event featured international and local artists – including SOFLES, John Kaye, Gus Eagleton, ZURIK, ADNATE, SATR, and more. Each artist giving a fresh lick of paint to walls scattered across the city.

DOES was tasked with a decent-sized wall located inside QUT University at Gardens Point. The campus is nestled in the heart of Brisbane City, between the Maiwar river and beautiful botanical gardens.

The wall in question, forms one half of a corridor – which is a main thoroughfare used by students and teachers bustling through the grounds to their next lecture. With the wall originally constructed in small red bricks – a heritage construction material common to Brisbane – DOES added a layer of cement to the exisiting surface – creating both a new layer, and a new beginning. Knowing the lush green surroundings of the area, and the often blue-skies that we are blessed with in Queensland; DOES set to work with a colour palette that would reflect the environment.

Working under the pretence of using graphic and abstract shapes for mass-appeal, and to create a sense of direction simulating the movement of people through the alley. The trained observer will notice that the artwork still contains the last three letters of DOES’ name. The ‘D’ absent from this dimension, perhaps living in a left hand section of wall that exists purely in the viewer’s imagination.

Text and photographs by Luke Shirlaw (Artillery Projects).