5546. Eugene Street

It doesn’t really matter how many times you walk or drive around the city, there are always surprises lurking around the corner in unexplored pockets. I have skirted around Eugene Street many times before, but simply never noticed this little spot at the top end, where this piece by Merny is one of two or three by various artists occupying a short stretch of wall.

Merny has dated the piece, showing me up a little… it has only taken me two years to find it! He has painted a man clutching his phone with the words ‘it’s free to be nice – it’s nice to be free’. In writing this, Merny has knowingly or otherwise adopted a linguistic mechanism called a Chiasmus, which is one of my favourite constructions and wordplays. I have written about this before in Natural Adventures because it arises from time to time. An example I made up (as a potential for marketing The Times newspaper) was: ‘There’s no time like the present and no present like The Times’. Geddit?

There is extra fun when Merny’s philosophy is accompanied by his fabulous naive style. I have always admired and probably will always admire his work.