‘As Long as it Lasts’ is a collection of photographs that record Julie Shiels’ ephemeral text interventions on urban waste but have become a body of work in their own right. For the last nine years Shiels has transformed hundreds of abandoned objects on local streets with stencils of quotations and truisms sourced from the public domain.
Over the years, the focus of the project has repeatedly changed. In the early days the work was about gentrification and the tensions that occur as inner city suburbs become both more desirable and simultaneously homogeneous. As the work has evolved it has become less about the social and more concerned with mortality and the passing of time.
The Gallery St Kilda Town Hall, St Kilda
Until 21 May, 2014
Melbourne
As long as it lasts, 2013, digital print, 61 x 87cm
