Community
22 March, 2024
Mural best seen after dark
THE latest piece of street art in Warrnambool is best viewed at night.
Talented artist Jimmi Buscombe has used specially imported glow-in-the-dark paint to create a mural at the rear of the F Project driveway in Timor Street.
The paint is activated by light, so visitors can use a torch to temporarily add to the artwork.
“The piece depicts some native flora and fauna and a barn owl. At night it will have this glow-in-the-dark surface that people can come down and use their mobile phones and draw on it, or do shadow art and all sorts of different things,” Mr Buscombe said.
“This stuff is from the States. I brought this in from America. It’s a Strontium-based particle that’s suspended in an exterior paint.
“It’s good for 10,000 plus charges and it’s really fast, so even with just a mobile phone torch, you can draw or write and it takes up the light really quickly and then releases it slowly after about 10 or 15 minutes and it will slowly fade into the darkness after that.”
The mural was funded by a Warrnambool City Council ‘Activate Warrnambool’ grant.
City mayor Cr Ben Blain believes the piece will provide another reason to visit the city centre in the evening.
“Especially once daylight savings ends, I think this mural will be really popular,” he said.
“The best public art is interactive, and this offers a really fun way to get creative and make your own masterpiece in a unique way.
“These grants were all about activating the city during off-peak times, and a glow-in-the-dark mural is a clever way to use the early sunsets of autumn and winter to our advantage.”
Cr Blain said that over the past decade or so there had been a big jump in the number of murals and sculptures in Warrnambool, and he believes this latest piece adds a real feeling of vibrancy and fun that only the creative industries can provide.
