The earliest graffiti that we recall is from a time when graffiti was rare, the 1950s. It had probably been painted a decade or two earlier. In large white letters on the red bricks of the railway arch over the road at Golden Square. It said PIG-IRON BOB.
Parents told the story and school reinforced it. Before the war, against the protests of the workers, Bob Menzies sold Our Scrap Iron to the Japs and they'd sent it back as Bombs on Darwin. PIG-IRON BOB
On Sunday night, the ABC Australian history series, Chris Masters' The Years That Made Us, referred to this episode.
They showed this image from 1946. We noticed the young boy looking at that simple effective poster, and wondered if he understood (when we did not, back then,) why these two word-things were linked: PIG-IRON
A political protest in Darlinghurst, Sydney, 18 September 1946.
Bruce Howard Collection_National Library of Australia
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
Also, we made a quick note (see below) to seek out later another fleeting PIG-IRON image. A wharfie looking at a bicycle wheel. So simple, so profound: what goes around, comes around.
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
click image to enlarge
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA