Tyrone Wright, Australian street artist more known as Rone, has become famous for bringing new life in destruction through colossal portraits of women on the walls of abandoned and decaying buildings. He has exhibited in London, New York, San Francisco and Miami, and did murals all around the globe including UK, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand and many others.
In crumbling, uninhabited spaces around the globe, the artist’s portraits of beautiful women shine — and soon after that then they’re gone forever. The finite lifespan, he says, is what makes street art singular: it appears suddenly but then is exposed to the elements: “That temporariness is what makes it contemporary, more important and special”, notes Rone. “Nothing lasts forever, it doesn’t matter how beautiful it is.”
Beautiful art in places of neglect highlights what we may have lost, says the artist. Those women’s faces he paints on crumbling walls remind us of life: they look strong, defiant, sexual, contained, mute. He tries to put the human element back in the place where something existed; according to him “it’s not spooky, but a little haunting, the soul of a space”.
