The word Eternity was a graffito tag recorded over an approximate 35-year period from 1932 to 1967, written numerous times in chalk in the streets of

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

. The word had been written by

Arthur Stace Arthur Malcolm Stace (9 February 1885 – 30 July 1967), known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian soldier. He was an alcoholic from his teenage years until the early 1930s, when he converted to Christianity and began to spread his message by ...

, an illiterate former soldier, petty criminal and alcoholic who became a devout

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

in the late 1940s.

Arthur Stace

For years after his conversion up until his death in 1967, Arthur Stace walked the streets of Sydney writing the single word "Eternity" on walls and footpaths in his unmistakable copperplate handwriting. His identity remained unknown until it was finally revealed in a newspaper article in 1956. It is estimated Stace wrote the word over half a million times. Only two original Eternity inscriptions are known to exist. One is on a piece of cardboard Stace gave to a fellow parishioner, and is held by the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. The other, and the only remaining inscription in situ, is inside the bell of the Sydney General Post Office clock tower.

Legacy and cultural impact

After Stace's death, the Eternity signature lived on. Australian contemporary artist, illustrator and filmmaker

Martin Sharp Martin Ritchie Sharp (21 January 1942 – 1 December 2013) was an Australian artist, cartoonist, songwriter and film-maker. Career Sharp was born in Bellevue Hill, New South Wales in 1942, and educated at Cranbrook private school, where one ...

noticed it and celebrated Stace's one-man campaign in many of his works. More recently, some Australian

groups, including those at universities, have run evangelistic campaigns whose promotion involved chalking "Eternity", after Stace's fashion, on footpaths. As part of the fireworks on

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

to mark New Year's Day of the year 2000, the graffito "Eternity" was illuminated on the

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The view of the bridg ...

. This moment was symbolically recreated later that year as part of the Sydney 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony, beamed to billions of television viewers worldwide. In 2001 the Council of the City of Sydney was granted a trademark (817532) on the script in order to protect it from indiscriminate commercial use. Sydney based Australian non-denominational Publication ''

Eternity Eternity, in common parlance, means Infinity, infinite time that never ends or the quality, condition, or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas ...

'' founded in 2009 was named after the tag. One of the works by English street artist

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams ...

during his October 2013 "residency" in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

depicts a worker washing away the Eternity tag. Sculptor, Will Coles, used the words on a concrete can.Will Coles official home page, street art gallery
Retrieved 25/11/2018

References

External links

''Eternity: Stories from the emotional heart of Australia'': The Eternity gallery at the National Museum of Australia

Chalked ''Eternity'' sign by Arthur Stace at the National Museum of Australia

Stace, Arthur Malcolm (1885–1967)
entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University * {{cite web , url = http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/eternity , title = Eternity , accessdate = 2 October 2015 , author = Shirley Fitzgerald , date = 2008 , work=

Dictionary of Sydney The Dictionary of Sydney is a digital humanities project to produce an online, expert-written encyclopedia of all aspects of the history of Sydney. Description The Dictionary is a partnership between the City of Sydney, the University of Sydney, ...

CC-By-SA A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright license A public license or public copyright licenses is a license by which a copyright holder as licensor can grant additional copyright permissions to any and all pers ...

] History of Sydney Australian fringe and underground culture Graffiti and unauthorised signage