The big map for the exhibition is being printed...

Thanks Tony for the printing - and the pic:

And here's the blurb for the exhibition, coming in less than two weeks now:

If you’re in and around Yarraville in a couple of weeks, you might be interested in an exhibition of sign writing-related documents from the inner west (paintings, drawings, job sheets) and paraphernalia from 1915 – 1960. The documents, from the former Lewis & Skinner company, were uncovered in Footscray at a demolition site last year, then turned into an online archive (see www.lewisandskinner.com for more details).

Pride of place will be a giant wall map of Footscray, Seddon and Yarraville, taken from a 1945 arial survey, with the signwriting documents attached. Plus every day from 12.00pm to 2.00pm, there’ll be live signwriting on the café wall by Spotswood sign writing artisan and historian Tony Mead.

The exhibition will take place in a comfortable and relaxed upstairs space (with balcony) at Lady Moustache café, 84 Gamon Street, Yarraville. Open 8.00am – 4.00pm every day from Wednesday October 2 to Sunday October 6. The café has great food and coffee too – feel free to stop by.

More details are here:

http://www.vu.edu.au/news-events/events/the-walls-of-melbournes-west-speak-again

Hope to see you there!

A couple of hours around the Adelaide CBD's west end

....during a quick visit for work. And yes, I found a few signs, as follows:

this one is next door to a brothel, opposite what used to be the rehearsal rooms our band practiced in when I was a young fella (it's an apartment complex now). We used to watch the blokes sneak in in our breaks.

layers!

Fly the ghost flag! This lil' blog has now amassed 10,000 page views. Not massive by web standards, but pleasing all the same. Thanks for clicking.

And now to the signs. The other day, managed to snap a few in West Melbourne before and after a meeting:

The famous old gym...in the papers lately for a mooted renovation

where my employer is planning to build a massive tower

two layers of signs - the original and the cigarette ad

Latest version of the big map to be displayed at the exhibition

Lisa has been Photoshopping up a storm of late. The map below is nearly the final version, and is about to be printed out on a hard backing. It will be printed in two sizes by Tony Mead for the exhibition at Lady Moustache cafe in just under three weeks.

The big one (1.4m x 2.1 m) will take up most of an upstairs wall, and a smaller version (1m x 1.5 m) will sit on a wall downstairs for people who aren't able to traverse steep steps:

Today: my first Lewis & Skinner document door knock

After the rain cleared this morning, I went out on the streets around my workplace to six buildings represented in the Lewis & Skinner signwriting archives, and to invite their inhabitants to the nearby document exhibition in a few weeks. It ended up being a most enjoyable hour.

In my bag was a printout of the L&S signwriting jobs for those locations, a map, a list of locations and a customised version of the exhibition postcard:

I started at a converted corner store where a Fishers Wax sign had been commissioned in 1956. I pass this shop every morning when I park my car in the local streets and walk to work:

http://www.lewisandskinner.com/items/show/1628

Nobody home, so I left the paperwork wedged in the door.

Then on to a couple of locations nearby near the train station. The first, a Victorian detached house, appears to have been a hardware shop.

http://www.lewisandskinner.com/items/show/874

There I chatted with two young women who were excited to hear about the connection.

Around the corner, another converted grocery, located opposite the train station. I left the documents about the Cadbury sign painted there in 1955 in the letterbox below the beautiful front door:

http://www.lewisandskinner.com/items/show/395

Then the main shops. The first site was now a local bank (but unfortunately in a obviously newish building). The former building had also had a Cadbury sign painted there:

http://www.lewisandskinner.com/items/show/1185

The person at the information desk I gave the documents to was friendly and interested.

 

Then down the road a little to the site of a former advertising signboard space hired in 1931 by Lewis & Skinner for Francis Longmore (probably a White Crow tomato sauce sign):

http://www.lewisandskinner.com/items/show/1447

Alas, it looks like a group of three houses/shops had been demolished sometime during the last 30 years to build the modernist house that's now there:

I left the documents in the letterbox here too.

And lastly, around the corner. On the way, passed by a local real estate agents with an obvious interest in the history of their area, judging by their window display:

I spoke to the guy inside and promised to drop in a postcard about the exhibition. He said the partners would be very interested in this.

The last site of the day was, and remains, a milk bar. Back in 1957 the signwriting job was for yet another Cadbury sign:

http://www.lewisandskinner.com/items/show/2258

The proprietor was, once more, delighted and interested. She and her husband have run the milk bar for 30 years, and she noted that this building and one nearby were the originals in the area. She also mentioned that she had recently met a man in his 80s whose father had run the milk bar in his time (was this the "Hendry" referred to in the  L&S documents?)

All in all, an encouraging first local roaming adventure, and a great way to meet the people in the living community surrounding the concrete bunker of my university campus, via what Harvey Sacks has called a 'ticket to talk' - a related interest or mutual point of connection. And, as also tends to happen in my ghost signs explorations, a feeling of being both grounded in the local surroundings and open to serendipitous encounter.

More of those feelings to follow soon, I hope.

Ghost signs for sale...attached to a building in Brunswick

Saw this former corner shop for sale yesterday in the real estate section of the paper - featuring a favourite (and, rarely, black) Bushell's Tea sign:

Preparing for the exhibition: postcards ready and framing day

The exhibition of the Lewis & Skinner signwriting documents starts three weeks from today, and much work is underway.

Here's a view of what the front and back of the postcards look like:

And early this week Lisa and I started to frame the Lewis & Skinner drawings, photos and paintings using the tonne of IKEA frames I bought on the weekend: