Hosier Lane

The service passage of the garment district long ran beside warehouses and workshops. The narrow space between the rear facade of the Forum Theatre and the buildings at numbers three and five is still marked by brickwork and service doors. The drawings on these walls do not form a permanent collection: a work may disappear beneath a new layer of paint, and the lane's fame does not override the wall owner's rights. The sign preserves the surname of a local entrepreneur, although documents do not explain how he was connected with this place.

In nineteen ninety-eight, the artist and curator Andrew McDonald, working under the name Andy Mac, mounted light boxes on the rear wall of the Forum Theatre. Such boxes usually displayed advertising; Mac began showing artists' work in them. The displays changed, and they could be viewed around the clock, without a ticket or a gallery door.

Mac chose this address because he had already worked here. He was one of the founders of Misty on the opposite side of the lane, designed its interior, and held art evenings there. Federation Square was just being prepared across Flinders Street: Mac expected the deserted passage to gain an audience. His entire venture fit between the bar and the theatre's blank wall—a place on which both his income and his standing among local artists depended.

At the time, there were almost no drawings here. It was a service passage beside the warehouses and workshops of the garment district. The name is older still: directories link it to the local entrepreneur Robert Hosier, but preserve neither his business at this address nor the reason for such an honor. The popular version that the name comes from stocking production is not supported by documents: old maps show the surname Hosier itself.

In two thousand two, Mac opened shared studios above Misty, in the building at numbers three and five. Painters, designers, and comic-book creators worked there. For openings, they came out of the rooms into the lane, ran electrical cables from the studios, and occupied the space between the two buildings. Mac invited some artists himself, wall owners allowed others to paint, and still others came without invitation. The drawings gradually spread beyond the light boxes and covered brickwork, doors, and service surfaces.

Until the early two thousands, city crews regularly painted over the entire lane: without an owner's consent, an image remained illegal. Mac again reached agreements with building owners, artists returned and put up new work. This is where Hosier Lane's present arrangement comes from: no one promises that an individual artwork will be preserved, and the lane's fame by itself does not replace permission for a particular wall.

Mac photographed disappearing works and asked artists to repeat stencils on paper. In two thousand seven, the National Gallery of Australia bought part of the collection he had assembled. Three years later, the museum mounted a major street-art exhibition from its collection. Artists whose images were erased here as graffiti found themselves in the collection of the first Australian state museum to begin buying such works.

The first images from the light boxes were removed long ago. Their location can be determined exactly: the rear wall of the Forum Theatre opposite the building at numbers three and five. Between these two facades, drawings began to spread through the entire lane. Robert Hosier's surname remains on the sign; on the walls, all that remains from Andy Mac's time is the next layer of paint.