Decades of dormant memories are being roused by a blazing mural tribute to the iconic Dandy Pig neon sign.
Acclaimed artist Claudio Mantuano has portrayed the emblematic pig in a 75th-year commemorative artwork inside Dandenong Market.
Prior to the project, he had been aware of its local significance, akin to the Skipping Girl sign in inner Melbourne.
“It wasn’t until I started painting the mural and chatting with the shoppers and vendors that I learned how many happy memories it holds.
“People would share their own personal childhood memories about the sign, some even going back to the early 1950’s.”
Once prominently perched above the Dandy Bacon shop on Lonsdale Street, the suited pig tipping its top hat advertised the Gippsland Co-operative Bacon Curing Company.
It was the first thing people would see coming into Dandenong, and like a “welcoming back home” for some, Manutano said.
“To others it simply holds memories of going to shop for their smallgoods.
“’We’d buy a big slab of bacon,’ one of the locals told me.”
In 1983, the sign was removed upon the closure of the bacon factory.
It was relocated to Dandenong Market in 1993, taken away for conservation and reinstated atop of the market in 2013.
Manutano says he painted the pig into a night scene to enhance the “neon glow effect” and give it “pop”.
“We also thought it would be a good idea to represent the sign in its old format when it was accompanied by the oval ‘Dandy’ sign.
“To show the space of time between the old sign and the new refurbished sign, I chose only to light up the pig itself and not the ‘Dandy’.”
Meanwhile, the painting is capturing a new legion of Dandy Pig fans.
“There was so much positive feedback from children whilst I was painting. They absolutely love it.”
