Australian Graffiti.

Whenever I watch television, I am constantly assaulted, as is everyone, by massive insults to my intelligence.



I have a game I like to play, which I call 'spot the lie'. Whenever an ad is on, I like to, you know, spot if not a lie, then definitely the half truth, that is included in order to dupe you into buying into the product/service. If it's an ad for insurance, then it's easy. Shampoos, easy. Fun times! This game is ridiculously easy while watching 'A Current Affair' and 'Today Tonight'.



What does this have to do with graffiti? Nothing at all.



Nothing except TV, anyway. TV is good, in the way that it can show you what huge chunks of the populace are thinking at a given time. Case in point, It has come to my attention that there is a general misconception here in Australia, that short people are "less succesful" in the business world. That somehow, when you're not succesful in business, you shrink. Both adults and children made the assumption, and they were all clearly dead wrong. Not that i care. I'm 6'2''.



So here's the link with graffiti, here in lovely old Australia.



There is another ridiculous assumption kicking around, that all graffiti is BAD.



The paranoia goes like this- there is 'good graffiti', and there is 'bad graffiti', except that when you encourage 'good graffiti', through community programs etc, it helps to spread the 'bad'. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the community to eliminate ALL graffiti, with extreme prejudice.



This reminds me of a Nazi book burning, in the way that you have a bunch of otherwise intelligent people, who are so caught up with the latest chapter of misinformation, that they turn on art.



I'll be the first to admit it, you're damn right there is good and bad graffiti. There is good and bad everything. But instead of talking in terms of good and bad, let's call it what it really is 'constructive' and 'destructive' aerosol art.



CONSTRUCTIVE.

There are artists out there in the world, who paint with such incredible skill, passion, creative vision, and individuality, that the thought of a world without them is just ludicrous. And they paint with cans. They have broken down the walls between graphic art and traditional art, and are pretty much solely responsible for the current look and flavour of popular culture. Without these innovators, the world would look very different. The TV would look different, your sneakers would look different, all the tour posters, record covers, magazines, architecture, fashion, and product design, would look different. They spend thousands of their own dollars buying paints, just like any other legit artist. And in a few notable cases, it has paid off, as they have contributed their art to media campaigns, and even the corporate headquarters of consumer giants like Nike. Their contribution to the look and feel of our popular culture is massive, and yet if I say 'Delta', 'Daim', 'Kid Acne', 'Twist', 'Kab101', 'Banksy', 'Dave the Chimp', 'Henry Obasi', 'Ryan McGinness', 'Green Lady', 'Struggle Inc', Melbourne's own 'Burncrew', 'Marquis Retna Lewis', 'Merda', 'Robbie Bear', 'Mephisto Jones', 'Phil Frost', 'Paul Bowman', or 'Mike Mills', most of you will have no idea who they are. But you have seen their work, guaranteed, whether it was on the street, or on a Beastie Boys record cover. At least you know who knifey is.



DESTRUCTIVE.

You don't really need me to explain this category. You see it all over the place, and it looks like shit. Especially in a city like Melbourne, that is based around a Victorian model of back alleys for the sewerage carts to collect from. Most cities don't have this, but we do, so it basically amounts to a 'come tag me' for every toy who wants to get up. These guys like to 'keep it real', as if this is New York or San Francisco, or Los Angeles. And that means stealing paint, and making sure you can see their shitty, unoriginal attempts at tagging everywhere you go (I'm looking at a guy called 'Def' in Melbourne here). They are out for fame, not art, and they show no respect to the rules of street art, which are basically "show respect", and "never paint on stone, or peoples houses". These idiots are fine (in my opinion) when they restrict themselves to train lines, but it pisses me off no end when I see they have made a trip downtown in the middle of the night, and have covered EVERY AVAILABLE SURFACE with a lame tag that looks like a limp noodle. I also include most stencil artists in this category, because stenciling requires little or no talent, and is currently enjoying a massive rise in popularity with first year design students everywhere. They cover everything in their quest for street legitimacy, when it's the paint version of a machine gun that fires shit. There are some amazing political and satirical stencil artists, as there have always been. But the trend biters are destructive, no question.



People paint on walls for two main reasons-

1. They love painting, and want the world to have their work, for absolutely free. They want to add colour, vitality, and life to neglected back alleys, and main streets too. They just love it.

2. They are fucked up and misunderstood, and they take out all the lack of love and guidance they have experienced on the wider community, just like any other kind of vandal. But it isn't the fault of the art form they choose to bastardise.



There are other reasons of course, but those are the 2 that suit this rant. There is a guy called 'Teror' in Melbourne, who is about as prolific as you can get with tags. His reason for being everywhere is because his parents own an art supply store, so he gets all his paint for nix. Because it's easy. The side of my house has a Teror throwup on it, about 8 feet long and five high. I don't love it.



So I'm not some hip hop purist, trying to convince you of the honour of the art. I couldn't give less of a crap about either hip hop, or keeping it real. What I'm into is art, and this is the point, so are a lot of whart the media erroneously called graffiti artists/taggers.



I cannot stress enough the difference, and I'm writing this with the genuine hope that the next journalist who is about to drop an expose on the war on painting, will see this while googling for research, and will contact me or ANYONE AT ALL for some perspective, should Rupert Murdoch allow for it. I know blogs are awesome in this way, because editors of magazines who would never return my requests to submit have been emailing ME lately, all because of this blog. Journalists get in touch (unless you're from the Herald Sun). And other artists do too, which is amazing. Blog Power 4 eva.



It's easy to overreact to something as in your face as destructive aerosol art, and i guess for most people it would be easy to assume that that is the only kind there is. But that's dangerous thinking, isn't it? Because there are literal geniuses of painting out there, who's art is nothing short of a gift to the world, or the wall it's painted on. If it all went away, this world would look stupid. And ads for cars, sneakers, beer, and Department Store chains would all go back to being about whatever we had before rad graphics came along.



If Robert Doyle had his way (and he won't), all aerosol art would be banned. This just highlights what a knee-jerk, ill-informed retard he is. He can flap his stupid mouth as much as he likes, but he will never stop aerosol art. And I'm not trying to be all tough and 'you'll never beat us'. It's just a fact. You can outlaw it and the sale of cans as much as you like, and guess what? YOU WILL ONLY MAKE IT WORSE. If you make it even more gangsta to go piece up, more disaffected white kids from the suburbs will brave whatever jail terms are on offer, just to stick it to you. Then you can send them to prison, and kid yourself that they'll come out reformed, when they'll actually emerge as a much more dangerous class of criminal instead.



But if you did the sensitive thing, and worked with the community to engender a sense of pride for that community, and encouraged high-quality public art works by aerosol artists, then the little shits might just see the difference, and the problem would go away. Seriously, what's better, pride in your community, or a police state? You do the math (because Robert Doyle is clearly unable to).



If we follow Robert Doyle's logic (and I would never propose that we do), it's simple majority rules, albeit, rules through misinformation and bias. So being gay goes back to the morally outrageous pile, we would reinforce the glass celing for women in the workplace, fire up the white australia policy, and pass a law that would make being Aboriginal a Federal offence. Why not? You can construct an emotionally appealing, yet logically poor argument for just about anything, if you put enough spin on it. Basically, it could be illegal to be a person who wasn't enough like Robert Doyle.



Fuck that. I'd rather have some personality, and live in a fair country that embraces multiculturalism, and runs on informed logic. I'd also like to fistfight Robert Doyle, so if you're readng this Robert, please get in touch.



The funny thing is that Melbourne is on the world map as a leader in street art culture. That's a huge achievement, and translates into real dollars for the local economy. The city council knows it. That's why they hosted the Twist exhibition at the meat markets! Twist did the exhibition (as well as painting the world famous water wall at the National Gallery of Victoria), then promply hooked up with a crew of Melbourne taggers and sprayed "Twister*' on neglected buildings all over town. And you paid for it! Ha, ha, I love that part. Twist is a serious artist, who started out as exactly the kind of public menace everyone is so worked up about lately. But he still has a street edge (about a hundred miles wide), so expecting him to act any different would be plain stupid. Point is, the city council is slowly realising that graffiti does not necessarily equal bad, and they are providing spaces and opportunities for artists from Melbourne, and overseas. And this is good, even if for their part, the majority of artists concerned act like drunken snowboarders on tour with Iron Maiden. They can't help it, that's just who they happen to be.



I wonder if all the other cavemen turned on the cavemen that painted on the walls and ceilings of their caves, and locked them up? Because this phenomenon is nothing new. Only lately it seems that donating art to the community is a crime.



Don't buy into the hype, people. Let culture live, and mutate, and thrive. Because your cities could be so much more than dirty black walls and billboards. But most importantly, don't be blindly led by people who have no passion or love for anything other than political posturing and money. Art is good, just like music. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. In just the same way as music is good, just not at 4 am on the street outside your house, the same can be said for art. And don't confuse those dicks scratching their name into the train windows, with the guys and girls who risk getting massive fines and or thrown in jail for painting something amazing in an alley off Chapel or Brunswick streets, and spending all their own cash to do it. A decent can of paint costs anything up to $30, and they don't go far. It's easy to spend hundreds on a piece. Would you nail a hundred bucks to the wall of an alley, to express your love for art?



"Stop me before I paint again"- Banksy.



This is knifey, from 'the internet'.


*please note- not all art on this page is from Australia (despite the title), but heaps of it is. It's just whatever dope shit I had on me at the time.