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WA artist reveals his Fremantle love

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It's funny what you can miss sometimes, especially on a daily commute.

Your train, bus or car passes trees and buildings that barely warrant a second look - but sometimes we can see something totally unexpected in a familiar place.

Take for instance the word 'love' spelt out by algae-covered rocks in the shallows between the Fremantle traffic and railway bridges. 

You can catch a glimpse of it as you pass over... a little secret hiding in plain sight.

It was placed there back in November 2014 by Dutch-born artist Amok Island, who has made a very creative mark on WA with his organic inspired artworks, most notably a series of murals on wheat silos in the town of Ravensthorpe.

The Freo resident told WAtoday he first arranged the rocks to form the word 'Amok' in the shallow sand bank next to the train bridge.

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"I come from a graffiti background, and this felt similar; just writing my name in a public place," he said.

"This time I do not add any paint on the wall, I just re-arrange things that were already there.

"I like the idea of working together with nature, that is why I have placed concrete letters in the water before documenting nature taking over with algae, sponges and organisms. This was just a similar idea."

Art in a public space may start off with the artist's vision but the audience can very quickly take over.

Take Eliza, the statue of a swimmer in Crawley Bay near Perth for example, which regularly gets kitted out in outfits like Santa suits and Melbourne Cup frocks.

Do you know any other secret sights like this in WA? Let us know.

'Love' is regularly rearranged, sometimes quirkily, sometimes rudely, but Amok said he welcomed these interpretations. 

"This one definitely has definitely taken on a life on its own," Amok said.

"After two weeks, a friend apparently came by and changed my work into 'Love', I read about it in the local paper.

"I was deliberating if I should change the word back to 'Amok' but it felt a bit selfish now. I thought the word 'Love' will be more interesting for the public than the word 'Amok'. So I decided to not change it back.

"Since then it has been changed weekly it seems."

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