The  legendary ‘I have a dream’ Mural on King Street Newtown  Sydney……….shot with a tiny toy camera while going past on the bus

The most famous illegal mural in Australia…. painted by Andrew Aiken and Juilee Pryor over three nights and two days in August 1991 using about $1000 worth of scrounged and donated paint with the aid of a triple extension ladder and the use of a donated cherry-picker. The writing that follows is what was posted under the colour photo when it was first uploaded to Redbubble about a year ago………

Behold, the dreamer cometh,

Come now thereforth

and let us slay him….

and we shall see

what will become

of his dreams…..

This is a picture taken in Newtown recently of a legendary mural that adores the main thoroughfare, King street. It’s a very old (painted in 1991) illegal bit of street art that has subsequently become an iconic part of the area. A very simple design. The face of Martin Luther King next to a large and now very faded reresentation of the world and under that are the first couple of words from a very famous speech given by Dr King. ‘I have a dream’ ….”Underneath it is a representation of the Aboriginal flag. It was a wonderful speech and it’s a wonderful and enduring mural.

It was painted all that time ago by two people who were both very damaged and maybe even a bit mad at the time. He was on the run from the law for a terrible crime and she had just been abandoned by her husband, leaving her destitute with three tiny children and an imminent eviction. They were both artists and met one day when they were both painting something on the side of a building on the same street. In their mutually recognized despair and confusion they decided to reach inside to somewhere really deep and give a gift of themselves to all around in order to stave off the darkness that otherwise would have engulfed them and tumbled them right down into the pits of hell. Not far from where they were was a blank three story wall on the side of building on the main street. Perfect.

So less than two weeks after they had first met they painted this great humanist message on the side of this building, knowing full well that they risked imprisonment for defacing the street with this simple but profound message of peace and love. And they poured it out over two days and two nights. Never even signed it but rather gave it as a gift to anyone who could see it for what it really meant. Then walked away in the silence of the night not really expecting much from it. But the people of Newtown took this gift in to their hearts and in the ensuing 18 years it has become one of the best loved and most iconic representations of this amazingly diverse and vibrant community. Almost a sacred symbol of Newtown really.

Funny story this one. The artists never made a penny out of it and are not even really know for their own work but sometimes just sometimes one of them reflects on the inanity and shallowness of the art world and wonders why she bothers and then she remembers that sometimes just sometimes the gift of the spirit moves in her and no matter how hard it all is sometimes …. that it really is worthwhile to give of yourself. That it can make a difference to work from the heart. And that thought helps her get through the next bit of time.

Juilee Pryor