Placard, God bless thee valiant diggers c. 2002–16

Summary

Christian evangelist Desmond Hynes does his best to attract attention. Adorned in handmade signs promoting his love for Jesus, Hynes has been a striking and memorable figure on the streets of Melbourne for three decades. With eye-catching shopping trollies painted with Jesus slogans, Hynes uses the combined visual power of art and advertising to spread the word, exploiting advertising's effectiveness while retaining the humanness of the handmade and the immediacy of the everyday. His corpus of creative work has strong visual appeal beyond its intended purpose, or beyond the fascination or repulsion viewers may find in its content; these typographic compositions might even be considered works of outsider art. Hynes' signs convey an ease with text design and layout, as well as a sophisticated visual sensibility that transcends their religious content and commonplace origins. Repurposing materials, such as cardboard, placemats, fabric and house paint, Hynes inscribes these with catchphrases and slogans, using a highly personalised script embellished with dots, love hearts and underlining. His clever use of colour and optical effects maximises the impact of his words, which range from the short and sweet to the hard-hitting and fundamentalist. For Hynes, every surface has the potential for spreading the word. This work featured in an exhibition titled 'The Jesus Trolley', held at City Gallery during September–December 2016, which brought together works from Hynes' huge outpouring, reframing it as outsider art. It was acquired at the time of the exhibition. This summary of Desmond Hynes' divine mission and work is drawn from the catalogue essay by exhibition curator Joanna Bosse.