Contemporary street art often sets hearts racing and tongues wagging.

Its combination of artistic styles and locations has created a culture of excitement and intrigue in many cities around the world – and now Adelaide can boast one of the most spectacular pieces of contemporary street art in Australia.

In fact, the collaboration between Common Ground Adelaide and internationally acclaimed painter and creator Joel Moore, aka Vans the Omega, has taken street art to a whole new level – seven levels to be exact.

Commuters, city workers and locals have been mesmerised by the scale and detail of Moore’s painting, the largest solo mural in the CBD, which now boldly lives on the front of Common Ground’s new building in Mellor Street.

Common Ground chief executive officer Maria Palumbo says Moore was given an “open” brief for the project, which took 21 days, 230 cans of paint and 160 litres of primer to create.

“At Common Ground our priority is to end homelessness by giving people in need an affordable, decent, safe and stable home, coupled with support to turn their lives around,” Palumbo says.

“Alongside this, we are passionate and committed to creating a place where people are proud to live – where they connect with each other and the broader community.

“Common Ground shares the State Government’s passion and agenda for creating a vibrant city. Art is one element of this vibrancy and a way we can engage people while also conveying who we are and what we do.

“What Joel has created here does all of this. Long before it was finished, people were talking about it and wanting to know more about it and Common Ground. It’s really incredible.”

Working for 10 to 12 hours a day for 21 days straight, Moore used a string line to set up the initial geometry of the image of a mother and son, and then filled in the design with spray cans.

“A lot of the design I actually derived from the architectural elements of the building, which has given the whole project form and balance,” he says.

“I’ve called this work Hemispheres.  It’s about the masculine and feminine side of the brain, balancing the two and the harmony that comes from that.

“It features a mother and son – which both embodies this message and portrays the unique work Common Ground is doing in the CBD as a housing provider which can now help single parents and children.”

The $15.5 million Mellor Street development has been funded by the Federal and State Governments with support from Santos, and is the fifth major Common Ground project in Adelaide.

The Mellor Street project is the first to include two-bedroom apartments, meaning it can accommodate single-parent families.

“The great thing about the community we live in today is how accepting we are of different forms of art and artists,” says resident and emerging artist Selena Henderson.

“Living at Common Ground previously for 12 months and moving back in eight months later, I was really excited to see what that they were doing a mural.

“Common Ground works really hard to get in and among the community and to get their residents involved in anything they can, from art classes, cooking classes, business certificates and general events around the city.”

Moore has incorporated ideas about shared community into his design for Common Ground.

“No matter who you paint, you can break it down so there is no colour denomination. You’re not Caucasian, or black or Asian,” he says.

“I like the idea of cultures and people being mixed. I like to paint in that way. I paint with an idea that it’s pattern-making, as if you could make the face out of patterns of colour like making clothes.

“The patterning on the young boy’s top actually represents evolved knowledge, the key to all knowledge. It represents different mathematics and ideologies. So he’s taking in all the knowledge of the world. He is our future.”

Moore says designing and painting the mural was a personal as well as professional journey.

“I get my hair cut at The Basin, which supports CGA [Common Ground Adelaide], and my dad has done some work with OzHarvest – another Common Ground partner – so I already had an understanding of the important work this organisation does,” he says.

“I really felt like I was meant to do this. It was meant to be.”

Henderson is excited about the vibe that the mural is generating in the community.

“Melbourne has been heavily involved in the street-art scene for quite some time now, and I feel Adelaide is following closely behind but catching up really fast to a very similar culture of acceptance of beauty in all its glorious forms,” she says.

“Obviously Joel is well known in his practice of street art and he has executed the mural beautifully.

“The contemporary yet realistic faces of the woman and boy give a sense of community and a personal touch which is what Common Ground is all about.

“When it comes to art, you want something that makes you go ‘wow’. You want something that makes you stop in your tracks and you want to take some time from the world to admire what the artwork is.

“Especially being in the city, sometimes we don’t get the opportunity to stop for a moment and take in our surroundings because it is always busy and there’s always something to do or somewhere to be. I am now constantly seeing people stopping, looking, taking photos, admiring; and most of the time they have jaw-dropping expressions.

“Words cannot describe how truly beautiful the artwork is. It must be seen.”

– This article was first published at Stories Well Told, Photographs: Brenton Edwards.