Launched in 2009, Heart of the City “celebrates the city’s concentrated diversity and world class experiences.” One such celebration, The Tank Art Project, has given the the Silo Park Tanks at Wynyard Quarter’s Tank Farm an appealingly fresh new look.
This larger than life art installation dates from 2012 and features original murals by Askew One (aka Elliot O’Donnell) whose work was inspired by and includes quotes from C.K. Stead’s poem, “Auckland“.
Tanks For Visiting!
This storage tank in Shimizu ward, in the western part of Shizuoka City, Japan, has been brightly decorated with the products of this rich agricultural area. The Shizuoka Tourism website featured the well-maintained and seemingly newly-painted tank in a post dated July of 2014.
Dino Might!
So-called “Slab City“, California is an unincorporated and uncontrolled RV community located in the California Badlands about 155 miles northeast of San Diego. About 150 permanent residents call “The Slabs” (after concrete slabs remaining from the abandoned Marine Corp barracks at the former Camp Dunlap) home even though summer temps can approach 120°F.
Being completely off the grid, Slab City boasts a number of water and fuel storage tanks, all of which have been elaborately decorated in the spirit of what Flickr member Kasey Smith calls “The Last Free Place”.
One of the larger tanks – the so-called Dino War Tank – is covered in folk art graffiti featuring prehistoric life, the fossil fuel industry, and the many wars caused by society’s desire for and dependence on oil.
Paint, chalk, glass shards and even used shotgun shells have been pressed into service as artist materials as the off-the-grid lifestyle encourages creative reuse. The Dino War Tank’s centerpiece mosaic mainly consists of colorful shotgun shells – appropriate considering the artworks’ theme.
The photographer also documented the nearby Wheel of Kama, a profusely decorated storage tank featuring anthropomorphic wild animals depicting the many positions of the erotic Kama Sutra… check it out yourself as we can’t feature it in its entirety here! Fuel for impure thoughts, some might say.
