A rag tag bunch of ex advertising agency creatives have got together to fight the plague of what they says is inappropriate property development planned for their little home town of Crescent Head (pop. 900).
The small group known as ‘The Popular Front for the Liberation of Crescent Head from Developers’ is into hard-hitting design that packs a savage sucker punch with wit and humour – on a subject they are very passionate about. Lego.
Their message ‘No Legoland for Crescent’ refers to local developers wanting to build a massive suburb of 160 dual occupancy, high density 500 sqm. townhouses on the western side of Crescent Head.
What has really got them uppity is that the Kempsey Shire Council want to rezone a previously protected ecological zone (E3) to high density R1 zoning to facilitate the development.
‘This is visual terrorism,’ said one long time resident ‘This shit is bananas.’
A local resident (name withheld) stated, ‘This is a suburb that could be best described as only suitable for a standard 3 block Lego family. It’s cruel.’
‘Child soldier for the Revolution or just a naughty boy? It’s good to have career choices’. *Note: Not a recent photo.
‘This will change the whole vibe of Crescent Head completely. It will be such a downer dude.’ SpokesMouthPiece of the PFL-CHD, Comrade Angus said ‘This development should be airlifted to Noosa, Palmer World – or anywhere in Queensland – because that is where this crap belongs.’
The PFL-CHD describe themselves as the illicit love spawn of Banksy, Charles Bukowski and Andy Warhol – insightful, intellectual, creative – but deeply scarred by early on-set PTSSD (Post Traumatic Suburban Sprawl Disorder).
‘Every day, we live with the pain of ugly property development battles lost – the tragedy of the Gold Coast, the nastiness of Noosa, the putrification of Port Melbourne, the bloody hell, what the fuck of Byron Bay – and pretty much every other town on the friggin’ eastern seaboard,’ PFL-CHD spokesman Comrade Angus told us exclusively from his hideout in the hills overlooking Crescent Head.
‘This is the last stand. It’s all in from here on. If Crescent goes, everything goes. Mark my words. It will mean that there is no appreciation for heritage and history anymore. Just a bunch of dickheads wanting to build shitty townhouses.’
The PFL-CHD mash-up video activism – at times verging on the abstract lunacy of early Warhol films, but with Lego instead of porn actors – is some of the funniest digital protest pop art faux-propaganda that you will ever see.
It seems Australia is leading the way in Designer Activism (DA) and Satirical Artistic Speech with Elements of Irony (SASEI).
‘We were obviously originally inspired by Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”, and the great political organisation The Peoples Liberation Front of Judea. And that’s a high standard to live up to,’ said Comrade Angus.
‘The rule of the PFL-CHD is similar to “Fight Club”, but totally different – if it doesn’t make us laugh or cry, it doesn’t get released into the wild. Yes, it’s sad, but some of our ideas get aborted. This is our commitment to fighting the scourge of unwanted bad ideas. Besides, the wild has enough boring shit in it,’ Comrade Angus stated.
‘True dat’ was heard across the battlefield of political bad taste by this intrepid reporter.
The PFL_CHD Manifesto states the groups 6 specific goals as:
1. Stop the Legoland development.
2. Stop the four storey apartment development in the middle of Crescent Head next to the Community Garden.
3. Stop the future high density development of the land adjoining Legoland.
4. Have the whole village of Crescent Head listed for heritage protection by the NSW Government so the Kempsey Council and developers can never again threaten our town.
5. Aggressively support the No Tar for Plomer Group and their goals.
6. Weaponise the art of the community to achieve our goals through mass media message circulation.
With their own range of cool activist merch, the PFL-CHD has you covered for the upcoming Summer protesting season. If you’re a ‘Friend Of Crescent Head’ and have holidayed there – join their Facebook group.
**End of transmission from The Popular Front for the Liberation of Crescent Head from Developers Guerilla HQ**
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