An art project highlighting the struggles of underprivileged children through mural depictions of their stories has unfolded on the streets of Melbourne. Known as HEARTCORE, the undertaking features a collaboration between children from the Berry Street school, who have bravely put pen to paper to tell their stories, and urban artist Kaff-eine, who has translated them into visual form for a forthcoming book.

Berry Street is an organisation that has been running in Victoria for over 130 years, and provides shelter, support, foster care and education to vulnerable children. Known for her delicate and melancholic style, Kaff-eine was the perfect person to help get the Berry Street writers’ stories across to the wider world, and the results can be seen at a number of locations, including the famous Rutledge Lane in the CBD. The completed murals are currently being photographed and will appear, along with the texts that inspired them, in the HEARTCORE coffee table book. Seduced by the street artist’s unique sorrowful aesthetic and the powerful story behind the project, we caught up with the Melbourne artist to find out more…

How did you get involved in the project?

I became involved through an informal, organic planning process over cups of coffee in Melbourne cafés. I’d illustrated a couple of books for a publishing company before and Emily, a representative from the company, asked me a couple of years ago if I’d be interested in illustrating a collection of Berry Street kids’ stories. I was really keen to match my attraction to the melancholy with what I knew would be some intense, melancholic writing, and I knew that working again with my friend from the publishing company would be a great experience. Emily and I caught up with Tom from Berry Street to workshop the idea; I floated the idea of painting on walls and photographing the pieces for the book, Emily and Tom loved it, and we went from there…

It must have been both difficult and rewarding at times, translating the stories to visual form – what sort of an impact has the project had one you, and have you felt added pressure in your creative process given the nature of its content?

I definitely felt the pressure of doing justice to the students’ writing, and some of the content was quite difficult to draw images from. That’s part of the reason I took on the project; I wanted the challenge of bringing these stories to life on the walls as standalone street art images, but also as creative interpretations of the stories. At the end of the three month marathon (I painted all 20 pieces in three months over the summer), I am physically and emotionally exhausted, but really happy with the body of work – and excited to see the paintings come together in the HEARTCORE book.

Such a project truly embodies the changing face of street art – what do you think something of this scale says for the scene?

I’m not really connected with the street art scene, although I paint frequently on the streets. I’ve been so caught up with the creation of this project over the past year that, apart form my artist friends, I’ve lost touch with what’s happening elsewhere with street art! I guess like every cultural and creative movement, things develop and change, and I’d like to think that the HEARTCORE project is an example of the growing acceptance and use of street art outside of the ‘art world’. HEARTCORE brings street art to many audiences who may have not previously engaged with the movement (child and family welfare services, teachers, social justice workers and the many people who came across me painting on the street…) and it also brings the themes and issues in the students’ writing to the street and in front of contemporary art audiences too. This is such a great thing and one of the reasons I wanted to be a part of the project.

What’s next for Kaff-Eine?

I’m currently packing my bags for a three month street-painting tour of the USA, then I’ll be back for the launch of the HEARTCORE book. After that, I’m working for the next 18 months on two public/contemporary art projects where I’ll collaborate with communities in Manila. The next two years are super-exciting!

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