“For a lot of these small towns, these silos were the hub of the town,” says artist Jimmy Dvate, whose art towers over the northern Victorian town of Goorambat. “Times have changed, technology’s changed, people have moved away, stuff closed, but they’ve still got these remnants of the past, these giant silos, and they’re so dominant.”

There are currently 21 pieces of silo art dotted around Victoria, the earliest of which appeared in 2016. Dvate and fellow artists Kitt Bennett and Adnate contributed large-scale artworks to regional Victorian towns, revitalising their old silos with powerful messages and captivating artistic styles.

Now their works are being represented in miniature at Melbourne’s Fed Square, part of the Urban Mini Silo Art Trail, a free exhibition which runs until the end of March. The hope is that visitors can consider the meaning of each piece, and then ideally travel out to the country to see the real thing.

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“For me it’s about trying to raise awareness for the subjects that I’m painting, so the native flora and fauna in the area,” says Dvate. “And then it’s just about revitalising these towns, putting them back on the map again, making them a destination spot so people aren’t just driving through them, they’re actually stopping and hopefully spending some money in the town as well.”

Goorambat silo art
Dvate’s silo art in Goorambat features two distinct pieces. The first, Millibai Barking Owl, focuses on raising awareness for native fauna. “I do a lot of research on the area I’m painting, so for these ones in Goorambat I talked to local wildlife groups to come up with a list of species that I thought would be good to showcase,” says Dvate. “I always try to highlight threatened species as much as possible.” For the first piece, he went with a barking owl called Millibai from Healesville Sanctuary. “I was lucky enough to get some one-on-one time with her to take photos that I was then able to use for my silo,” he says. “It’s about trying to raise awareness of this amazing wildlife that we have around us.”

The second piece takes a slightly different approach, representing the town’s historical relationship with Clydesdale horses. “I got invited back the year after I’d done the first one to do this one,” says Dvate. “They came to me with the idea because it’s such an important part of their local history. Because I was able to work with a modern photographer, I was able to get a really amazing image to work with.”

Artistic style and process
Dvate’s artistic style is photorealism, which is no mean feat when you consider the scale of silo-sized art. Using aerosol paint as a medium, the process can take well over a week from start to finish. With such a large scale, too, Dvate needs to account for the fact that he can’t just step back and review his work as he goes.

“I use a grid system, which is a really old technique from the Renaissance days and earlier,” he says. “I put a grid up on the silo, I have a grid on my design and I transpose it across. I guess you’ve just got to trust your process, you’re up there face-to-face with this silo, you can’t really stand back easily, it takes you 10 minutes to get down. It’s a lot of years of practice to get to that point where you’re comfortable to do it and know the process.”

Urban Mini Silo Art Trail exhibition is at Fed Square and runs until March 31. Entry is free.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Fed Square.