Query solved – Crime scenes give Adelaide an art attack

But as he was fingerprinted at the charge counter of Adelaide police station, he was already thinking of new ways to take his art to the street.

For several years, the Adelaide street artist, 28, has been using the cover of night to put up his poster; his arrest three months ago was his first brush with the law. The charge and court appearance sparked his latest and most ambitious project – reproducing old mugshots of Adelaide criminals he found in the State Library archives as posters around the city.

“It’s always in the back of your mind that the police might come along, but it finally happened,” Mr Drew said.

“It got me thinking about the criminality of street art. A lot of criminals are ordinary people, and I thought the best way to convey that to people would be through history.”

Mr Drew said he thought the 20 images were beautiful because of the time that had passed since they were taken. “They came from a time when you’d be lucky to have one photo taken in your entire life,” he said.

“We get a chance to remember them because they’re outsiders.”

The people in the posters were mostly been convicted of common offences such as larceny or being idle and disorderly in South Australia, and have been immortalised in police records. “It’s so specific to Adelaide, because they walked these streets, but it’s like another world,” Mr Drew said.

He said he had something similar to this project in mind when he first started his research, but the idea grew once he saw the mugshots.

“It got larger once I saw the potential in the images,” he said.

“They’re melancholy images – they’re sad because you can see in some of the photos they’ve got dressed up for them, and at the same time you can see shame and regret in those faces.”

Mr Drew put the first of the posters up about three weeks ago and finished earlier this week.

Within days some were removed by Adelaide City Council but most remain and have become an instant talking point. “Once they’ve been up for a while I like them to be taken down,” he said.

“But when it’s already gone the next morning, my first impression is to put it back up somewhere else.

“A few were cleaned off too quickly – I just do them again.”

Mr Drew was caught in the act by David Jones’s store security when he was trying to paste one of the posters on the retailer’s facade.

“It was probably a bit ambitious – I’d almost finished putting it up and their security came and insisted I clean it off,” he said.

Mr Drew said printing the posters had cost about $1000. Despite having removed some of the poster, a council spokeswoman said it was “keen to stimulate public art”.

“It provides a great chance to provoke the public, connect communities and generate questions and ideas about Adelaide’s future and celebrate the cultural richness of the city,” she said.

She said offensive material was removed as soon as practical, and when requested by a property’s owner.

Mr Drew said he put up his posters where they would enhance the streetscape. “I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think it improved the area,” he said. “Street artists do what we do because we want to give to the city.”

Drew has travelled around Australia and the world, where he has left his art, both stencils and posters.

Adelaide Crime Faces

Someone has been posting large A0 sepia prints of what appear to be early 20th or late 19th century crime photos from Adelaide. They are mainly in the back lanes around the Adelaide CBD, and are very cool. I like them a lot.