THERE are stories written across Logan’s walls. Some are obvious, splashed across concrete in brilliant colour, others belong to the artists who have painted along the Beenleigh train line for decades, the kids who grew up watching them and a street culture that has developed an identity all its own.
For Australia’s first street art consultant Matt Tervo, the challenge is not to come into Logan and reinvent that story.
It is to give the people already living it somewhere to tell it.
After breaking new ground as Brisbane City Council’s first street art consultant, Tervo is now working with Logan City Council to develop opportunities for legal street art.
He is bringing with him the lessons learned in Brisbane, but there is one thing he is determined not to bring — Brisbane’s identity.
“Brisbane and Logan are really different,” Tervo said.
“Logan’s got so much culture down there, so much history that isn’t Brisbane’s cultural history — it’s Logan’s culture and history.
“So it’s got to fit within that new dynamic, and I think to assume it’s the same would trip up most people.”
Tervo said the starting point remains the street and few places tell Logan’s street art story better than the Beenleigh train line.
Known as the B-line within graffiti circles, the corridor carries a reputation built over generations.
“If you’re a graffiti writer and you can claim the B-line, that really means something,” Tervo said.
That history has allowed him to approach artists who know the corridor intimately and ask them where Logan’s future legal walls should be.
MORE THAN A WALL
For Tervo, creating legal walls is not the end game but it is where the game begins.
“You can’t have a thriving street art industry if you’ve got nowhere to practice,” he said.
“You can’t expect the next generation to get inspired if they never get to see it and get to paint the hundreds of bad paintings you paint before you get a good one.”
Tervo wants those opportunities to eventually produce something even more important — local storytellers.
TAKING ON MELBOURNE
Tervo’s ambitions do not stop at Logan with his work expanding from Brisbane City Council to Logan City Council and Economic Development Queensland, but ultimately his vision is much bigger than any individual project.
He wants street art to become part of South East Queensland’s cultural identity.
“When I’m all said and done, I want to make sure that locally, when people think of street art in South East Queensland and Queensland, they feel proud of how much of a piece of our identity that is,” he said.
“We’re waving a big banner that says this is where we’re from.”
“We’re proud to be from here and get it to a point where the rest of the world can’t ignore it.”
For generations, Melbourne’s laneways have made the Victorian capital virtually synonymous with Australian street art.
“Melbourne’s worn that crown for ages,” he said.
“If you think of Melbourne, you think of street art. If you think of street art, you think of Melbourne.
“My goal is to take that crown.”
