Perth has always been known for its unique urban infrastructure and vibrant public art, making it a city worth living in. Recently, Moving Colour Studio’s Linewide Graphic Trail, the largest public artwork in the Southern Hemisphere, won big at the Dulux Colour Awards. It was crowned winner in the Commercial and Multi-Residential Exterior category. Read more about this colourful public walkway brightening the 7-km-long stretch it inhabits below.
Linewide Graphic Trail by Moving Colour Studio
Underneath the newly raised Armadale Train Line, winding through six Perth suburbs, you will find an expansive, kaleidoscopic artwork. Moving Colour Studio, owned by Kyle Hughes-Odgers and Chris Nixon, designed and put together this enterprising project.
While it may seem organic, the Linewide Graphic Trail involved a year of planning. Moving Colour connected with curators, architects, placemakers, and developers to create a blend of painted treatment and structural artwork. The entire project involved 120 piers, 8 abutments, 2 basketball courts, 2 skateparks, and 7 sculptures.
Its main theme, ‘Healing and Revealing’, had the Studio visualising the 7-kilometre patch as the meeting point of the younger and older generations. So, Hughes-Odgers and Nixon integrated children’s drawings into the art, making a space for them.
While painting (which took four months), they spotlighted designs and colours that reflect the various communities living along the Armadale line. Inspired by the six seasons of the Noongar calendar, the colour palette blooms from cool teals and greens in the city into warm reds and yellows towards the Perth Hills. Aiming for a block-like transition, the artwork introduces each station’s individual chromatic identity, including neighbouring suburb colours by small percentages. A constant flow accompanies and connects the full Trail, as does the Dulux Weather Shield Low Sheen Acrylic paint.
Getting there
Located between the Carlisle and Beckenham Stations, the Linewide Graphic Trail is part of Long Park. You can take the Armadale Line or Thornlie–Cockburn Line to reach these stations and spend hours exploring the trail, as well as other artworks by WA artists. Long Park has 14 community spaces, including playgrounds, skate parks, dog and fitness parks, and youth plazas with sports courts to look around. For more information, check out Metronet.
