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Caple’s Benalla Street Art mural inspired by destruction and beauty

By Simon Ruppert

Mar 25, 2024

When Benalla Street Art Festival curator Eddie Zammit offered Melanie Caple a wall to paint, the outcome was inevitable.

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“I’ve been chatting to Eddie for a while about doing a project, and it was actually really nice when he approached me,” Caple said

“I really liked his ethos around curating the festival.

“I liked that he was looking for a different type of line-up and artists that were pushing their practices.”

Speaking to the Ensign on Saturday, March 23, Caple said she had started by putting bold colours up, but filling in the details would take longer.

“I reckon I'll be painting through to at least Wednesday, maybe Thursday,” she said.

When discussing her design, she said it’s something she’s had in mind for a while.

“A lot of my work is a celebration of nature and connection to place and things, but I actually wanted to comment on the changing climate and destruction and invasion.

“I really like setting up scenes in my studio and documenting them to create inspiration for work.

“So I actually got eucalyptus leaves, burnt them in various ways to capture the flames.

“And I wanted to have the cat skulls in there with the kingfisher to show the different ranges of dominance and destruction whilst making it look beautiful at the same time.”