Peter Drew’s Street Art

By Ben Stephens.

When you take a walk around Sydney these days one thing is beginning to really stick out as a new addition to the cityscape – the amount of high visibility vest-wearing workers that inhabit George Street. It really gives the Harbour City a Western Australia mining boom vibe. Another thing that is wedging its way into the city is street art, which funnily enough gives the Harbour City a more Melbourne vibe about it… even the coffee is on par. It’s the street art that I want to draw attention to. The street art scene that is seeing some conflicting, challenging and even confusing pieces of work take form. From Kayne kissing Kayne, a sweet piece by Sydney artist Scottie Marsh that really gained some attention, to new spray from Anthony Lister appearing around the inner-west, the city has been enjoying a spread of new works.

A photo posted by Scott Marsh (@scottie.marsh) on Mar 18, 2016 at 9:19pm PDT

Nonetheless, it is the work by Adelaide born, paste up artist, Peter Drew that really challenges the mind at the moment. You may have seen Drew’s work around Australia last year – he stuck up a rather large print ‘Real Australians Say Welcome’ stimulating social conversation around the refugee issues facing the nation.

A photo posted by — Peter Drew — (@peterdrewarts) on Jul 7, 2015 at 1:12am PDT

The follow-up work that hit the streets last month and comes from the same slice of the multicultural thought pie, challenging directly the idea of ‘Aussie’. The man featured in the piece is Monga Khan, who was allowed into Australia under the White Australia policy in 1916 as a cameleer, selling goods to different towns and strengthening an early Australian economy.

The conversation around the work ranges from accepting and engaging to seeing posters torn down or written over. Whatever side of the fence you find yourself, the works seem to evoke emotion and conversation which is exactly what Drew was looking for surrounding our national identity.

Along with Monga Khan, there are six other posters in the project, that showcase different ‘Aussies’, hidden around the city. The project initially started as a Pozible project that received over double what was asked for. These funds will now help Drew to put up these posters in all eight capital cities over the great nation.

A photo posted by — Peter Drew — (@peterdrewarts) on Apr 1, 2016 at 2:01pm PDT

These posters can be found around all over the city, just check out #mongakhan on Instagram.