Car parks now art parks

ART is taking centre stage in Greater Dandenong with works now displayed in laneways, car parks, railway stations and vacant shop windows.
The latest exhibition, installed this week at the Thomas St car park, will feature the works of Kosar Majani.
Ms Majani, who arrived in Australia from Iran in 2001, said her work, Conversations With A Persian Wall, was inspired by her observations of Persian and Aboriginal art.
“I aimed to create a fusion of traditional Persian cultural patterns in a modern-day setting,” she said.
“I have creatively used recycled bottle caps as their shape represents the dots associated with Aboriginal painting.
“I also tried to incorporate dynamic colour combinations in my work to counter the dull space of the car park.”
The manager of the Revitalising Central Dandenong Place project, Jenny Pemberton-Webb, said the art work would be on display at the Thomas St car park until May.
“This latest installation is part of a series of works by emerging artists throughout central Dandenong,” she said.
“We are using art to animate undervalued and highly utilised spaces in the City of Greater Dandenong.”
In July four artists combined to create artworks aimed at encouraging car park users to think differently about public spaces in Dandenong.
“More than 2000 visitors, residents and workers inhabit this space weekly as they make their way to work or to shop,” Ms Pemberton-Webb said.
“These art installations have brought life, colour and local stories into the public realm.”