Archiving public culture through the subtext of the city
25 October – 3 November 2024, Sorse Gallery, 31 Colebrook St, Brunswick VIC 3056
How many of the words displayed upon the surfaces of your local high street can you recall? The places you shop, the name of your tram stop, that graffiti tag you see everywhere, your favourite coffee place…
What would a portrait of your street look like, if you composed it of all the words displayed upon its surfaces?
UNREDACTED CITY revealed Melbourne’s messy and inspiring public markings in a new exhibition concept by urban surfaces researcher and photographer, Sabina Andron.
UNREDACTED CITY was an exploration of the overlooked writing cultures of city surfaces. Over three months in 2023, Andron meticulously recorded every visible name and message along a 2.5km stretch of Sydney Road in Brunswick. The result was an extraordinary list of 2,528 inscriptions displayed on this iconic Melbourne street – brought into the gallery space as a site-specific vernacular archive.
The records include utility providers, real estate agents, manufacturers of street furniture, global brands, politicians and historical figures, music gigs, graffiti tags, and many stickers with fun, confronting, and informative messages.
Unmoored from the streetscape of Brunswick, the archive was presented as a series of A0 posters to honour one of Melbourne’s most emblematic urban expressions: the street poster. For the exhibition, Andron invited artists and collaborators to create original posters using the 2,528 notations as a shared language, to explore the scripts and voices that shape our shared spaces.
Visitors were invited to alter, enhance, or deface the posters – such as the city does unto itself.
UNREDACTED CITY mirrors our textual coding of the city, reminding us that urban surfaces don’t just hold a record of transaction and exchange, but they are the keepers of our collective values.
Do you see it? the city already wrote itself.
Sabina Andron, Unredacted city 
Renee Miller-Yeaman, Backyard Leftovers #2, (For Lease or Sale. Blank Canvas) 
Miriam Patience, Becuming Me 
Michael Fikaris, Unredacted City 01-04 
Guillermo Rojas Alfaro, Black Box 
Manda Lane, The Occupant 
Rich Keville, wOrds 01 
Nicky Tsekouras, FREE BINGO HERE NOW 
Chris Parkinson, PROSE CUTED 
Operative Flathead, Hooked on Sydney Road 
Camila González Benöhr, WOW 
Josh Wilson and Laine Stewart, do I have to spell it out like that; don’t ask me; sounds good 
Adrian Tanner, Unnamed 
Sabina Andron, All the names on Sydney Road (2023 edition)
Concept and research: Sabina Andron
Artists and collaborators: Adrian Tanner, Camila González Benohr, Chris Parkinson, Guillermo Rojas-Alfaro, Laine Stewart with Josh Wilson, Manda Lane, Michael Fikaris, Miriam Patience, Nicky Tsekouras, Operative Flathead, Renee Miller-Yeaman, and Rich Keville.
Production: BAProjects
Design: Sonia Sanchez Lopez
On unceded Wurundjeri land
SABINA ANDRON 