Have you ever been at a gallery admiring the art but wishing you could add your own touches to the work?
If the answer is yes and you’re in Melbourne this weekend, we have the answer to your gallery dreams! Sharpie have teamed up with Melbourne-based artist and designer Alice Oehr to make an interactive exhibition that is perfect for you. Opening in black and white on Friday the sixth of November, The Sharpie Mark-et is a fully hand-drawn supermarket on Little Collins Street, where every item from bread rolls and cans to blocks of cheese have been hand-drawn in bold black line art by Alice. Over the Sharpie Mark-et’s two opening days, visitors will be able to move throughout the store, leaving their own mark: colouring in groceries, drawing on Alice’s mural walls and writing their own notices on the Community Creative Board, all to create a colourful celebration of community and group creativity.
Ahead of the exhibition, we caught up with Alice to hear more about her experience working on the Sharpie Mark-et.
Obviously, a large part of this project is that it’s interactive and isn’t finished until it’s been touched by the audience. What are you most excited for about the weekend?
I love working collaboratively, and it’s really exciting seeing the way other people approach drawing. Everyone has their own style, techniques and ideas. I can’t wait to see what they bring to my artwork.
Tell us more about what’s happening over the weekend? I heard you’re also doing a big mural as part of this project; tell us more about the idea for that and what we can expect to see?
I have created a giant modular mural inspired by fruit and vegetables and the graphics of the market, which is one of my favourite subjects. The artwork investigates the natural patterns, textures and colours you’ll find on fresh produce, and invites viewers to explore their own take on the truth when they translate this subject into art with their own mark-making at the workshops. People who visit over the weekend are allowed to scribble on the mural, as well as all over the walls, and they can shuffle the artwork around to make new compositions.
Food plays such a big role in your work. What drew you towards food as a subject?
I find a lot of inspiration at the market and from looking at fresh produce. What’s in season is always new, exciting, and always vibrant. The natural world has a lot of beautiful colours, patterns and textures, and I like to work from these, translating them into my own graphic language. I’m also an enthusiastic eater and cook!
Sharpie markers are such a cultural staple, everyone has used them and has their own relationship with them. I wanted to ask if you have any Sharpie memories from your earliest days as an illustrator?
Yes absolutely! The most exciting thing about Sharpies is that they are permanent, and they also have a really nice fine tip, so they’re great for drawing detailed linework. My first memory of using a Sharpie is drawing the tracklist on a CD mixtape I burned as a teenager. The good old days!
What has been your favourite part of working on the Sharpie Mark-et?
The mural is modular, which has presented the challenge of literally having to chop up my artwork. But I love to experiment with a new project; I always learn something unexpected, and it allows me to grow as an artist.
Mounted onto fruit boxes, the mural can be remixed and shuffled around by attendees at the event. I think it will look cool when it’s all jumbled up; I like when familiar subjects become abstract in this way.
I’d love to end this by asking what your favourite food memory is.
There are too many to name, but one thing I do love is trying new foods, the weirder the better, when I’m travelling overseas, I love to walk around markets and sample things and see different produce. There are some very good markets in Europe and Japan, but I could never pick a favourite!
Come and check out the Sharpie Mark-et Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November, 10am–5pm, with free masterclasses with Alice (book here) at 362 Little Collins Street, Melbourne CBD.
