I remember looking at the empty warehouse, there was rubbish and dust everywhere. It was hard to convince anyone that this space could be anything more than a demolition site.  I was about 22end of (2000) at the time and it was a massive investment. We divided the space up into 22 open studios. The first year was very hard. We had trouble filling the studios and the people we were getting were difficult and hardly ever there. (I always dreamt of a hard working and productive studio.) It was after about a year that the Studios started to develop a personality. A number of street artists had taken up studios. And a few people from my masters course at the VCA; it was a real blend of artists. It was at this time that the name ‘Blender Studios’ was given. ‘We were sitting around having beers trying to come up with names;it was James Dodd who came up with the Blender. It became a mission statement of sorts.’ The mostly full studios were a real blend of different artists, philosophies, beliefs and socio-economic backgrounds and educations.  The studios began attracting an underground element. And in mid 2001 the Melbourne street art scene burst from its doors and onto the streets of Melbourne. ‘There was a real political element to the early Melbourne stencil scene. This was partly because of the US invasion of Iraq and I think that many of us young artist felt that we had no voice and that the Australian art scene had been hijacked by pretention.  The Blender Studios became the intellectual heart of the early Melbourne street movement. Research artists became highly influenced by the street movement, Many making it part of their common practice. It was here too, that the seed was planted, which would later lead to street artists taking a more commercial and research approach to their work.

 
D*face from England "Big Mounth"

 

‘It was an interesting time in Melbourne, Some nights there would be as many as 30 people leaving the Blender with mops, rollers, cans everything.  The city was under siege. We owned the town. It was awesome.’
We would all work in the studio and at about 5 or 6pm as people finished work they would come over to the Blender to have some beers etc. And then everyone would hit the town.
It was stencils, paste-ups and parties. In 2002 Regan Tamanui aka HA – HA, Dan Sibley aka Danism and James Dodd. Aka Dlux set up Early space inc. in Collingwood. This was run through the Blender Studios and was the first street art gallery in Australia. It set the scene for the commercial side of street art to take off. This was cemented in 2004 when Andy Mac (Citylights) assisted the National Gallery of Australia in the acquisition of a large selection of stencil work for its works of paper collection.
The Blender Studios continued as the centre of the Melbourne street scene and was making great inroads on the contempory art scene with some of its artists achieving national acclaim. Roh Singh, Emma Van Leest, Louisa Jenkinson, and Anthony Lister to name a few, are among some of the early alumni.
In 2004 a few things happened that changed the Melbourne street movement forever. The first was the preparations for the Commonwealth Games.  This meant that the government and the City of Melbourne changed its graffiti policy. A police task force was set up and a large section of important street art was white washed. And some of the most prolific artists went on the run. They are still on the run today, for creating street art!
In April 2004 the Blender Studios also shut down. This had a Diaspora tic effect on the street art movement. With the meeting place gone many of the street artists disappeared back into their world. (It was at this point that there was an aesthetic shift from stencils to free handspay painting.  And the Melbourne Street scene changed forever.) The fine artists moved on in the same fashion, to many degrees of success.
In late 2004 the Everfresh Studio was set up by street artists that were either in the Blender or very closely associated with the Blender.  The studio (still running strong today) has become one of the most influence street production houses in the country.And has a book being published about Everfresh in the next year.
It was in early 2007 that the Blender Studios re-opened in the same warehouse on Franklin St. This time I was 29 I had spent over 3 years in Asia. Setting up the same space twice allowed me the understanding of what worked last time. We now have 14 studios instead of 22. It was much easier the second time all the studios where full in the first couple of weeks. We have three basic rules at the Blender now: No artists can work full time. If people don’t use their studios we ask them to move out. If you bring someone to the studio you have to show them everyone’s space. This makes us a much stronger collective and community. The Studios is not for profit, it makes no money; it’s about the art.

The studios are different now we are older and we don’t party all the time. It’s a good thing. We are more focused on our art and this has attracted serious artists. We only have a few street artists in the Blender now, Drewfunk and Regan Tamanui aka HA HA are the main street artists. It is still a meeting place and has a strong underground element. We have set up the Melbourne Street Tours. (A famous street artist gives the tour, it starts at Fed Square and works its way through the city to the Blender Studios.)  The tour helps open up the studios to the public. We have also set up Michael Koro galleries – a research gallery. Joel Gailer (winner of the 2008 Fremantle print award) helps me run it. The gallery has been open for two years and has had some great shows.  From sell out commercial shows to cutting edge exhibitions focusing on research and technology.  

The Blender is now full and takes applications each time a space becomes available. Some of the artist that have residence at the Blender now are.Regan Tamanui, - was in Optimizim at GOMA  Michael Peck – represented by Metro, Craig Cole – Set up and directed Shifted art space in Richmond, Drewfunk – street art superstar, Tim Sterling– winner of the Samstag and a number of Ozco residencies and more. The artist are serious and work hard. Most are represented by galleries or have residencies and awards. We do however have two young artists that we have taken on at the Blender in a mentoring role. They have decided to come to the Blender for two or more years instead of going to university. Both artists are twenty years old and work hard.  It has been a successful program with Joe Flynn selling out his first solo show at Broad Box gallery in December.
So the Blender has become more of an art complex an ideas factory where nearly anything goes. It is self-sustainable and has tried to bring art to everyone. It is not elitist and everyone is always welcome.

Adrian Doyle

 

 

 

 

 

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