{"id":120,"date":"2009-06-14T22:20:45","date_gmt":"2009-06-14T12:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meganix.net\/pavement\/?p=120"},"modified":"2014-05-30T18:02:23","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T08:02:23","slug":"eternity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meganix.net\/pavement\/2009\/06\/14\/eternity\/","title":{"rendered":"Eternity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"09gapr12-cp1060384-eternityth\"Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most famous pavement graffitist was Arthur Stace, a reformed no-hoper who walked the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s streets writing the single copperplate word \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcEternity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00c2\u00a0<\/span>after being dramatically converted to Christianity in the 1930s. Some years after his death in 1967, Sydney artist Martin Sharp adopted his chalked word and began incorporating it into prints, posters, tapestries, postcards and T-shirts. Thanks to Sharp\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thirty-year Eternity industry, what was originally a religious message has become a product of popular culture. In 2001 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcEternity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in Arthur Stace script was registered as a trademark by the City of Sydney because of its \u00e2\u20ac\u02dciconic value \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 to the people of Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.*<\/span><\/p>\n

A replica of Stace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one-word sermon is preserved in metal near a fountain below Town Hall Square.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Unfortunately is it is hidden from most people except the patrons of a caf\u00c3\u00a9 whose outdoor chairs and tables surround it. It was raining the day I took this photograph \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the cascades off the caf\u00c3\u00a9 umbrellas matched the cascading fountain. <\/span><\/p>\n

Every now and then I come across ‘Eternity’ written in chalk by someone trying to imitate Stace. And a\u00c2\u00a0stencil artist in Melbourne has used the form of Stace’s word to write ‘Optimism’ <\/a>on the pavements there.<\/span><\/p>\n

(* I have written about chalk and pavement writing in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe Eternal City\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, Meanjin 65(2), 2006, pp.139-146).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most famous pavement graffitist was Arthur Stace, a reformed no-hoper who walked the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s streets writing the single copperplate word \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcEternity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, \u00c2\u00a0after being dramatically converted to Christianity in the 1930s. Some years after his death in 1967, Sydney artist Martin Sharp adopted his chalked word and began incorporating it into prints, posters, tapestries, postcards <\/p>\n

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