While it’s the first couple of days of a new spring for Melbourne, the skies are still threatening the city with clouds, rain and chilly blasts of air from Port Phillip Bay. I can only imagine that this type of weather would’ve greeted many migrants who have arrived into Melbourne by sea over the years.
Station Pier in Port Melbourne was the key landing point where many migrants, from Europe, South-East Asia and the United Kingdom, would’ve set their first footsteps onto Australian soil after spending months at sea to get here.
Now, ARTcontained is featuring installations from Melbourne artists and art students to put the spotlight on Melbourne’s multicultural history. A series of shipping containers have been strategically placed within the Station Pier shipping and shopping area and transformed to create artistic representations of Melbourne’s migrant history.
Three curated installations will be on show for free over the next eight months. The first in the series that’s currently running is ‘Port in a Storm’, led by artist and tutor Michael Peck and Carlo Pagoda from Academy of Design Australia.
By day, visitors to Station Pier can view each shipping container’s transformation. Collectively, the containers create an installation that tells the story of Melbourne’s multicultural heritage and the journey to Melbourne via turbulent seas through paint. By night, each container lights up, creating artistic light-boxes across the pier-front.
Getting to Station Pier in Port Melbourne is easy. Take the 109 tram from Collins Street near the intersection of Swanston Street in Melbourne’s business district and disembark at Station Pier, the last stop of the route. The tram ride to Station Pier takes approximately 15 minutes.
Port in a Storm runs until September 5. Two more curated installations will be on show from September 21 and November 30 respectively.
For further information and updates, visit the City of Port Phillip website.
