Sydney became LAME
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- Khurram0
The whole point of graffitti as an art-form is that it IS illegal and it IS vandalism and is perpetrated by those who have no stake in their environment. That's its raison d'être.
Trying to allocate "safe zones" or encouraging more of the stuff completely misses the point of what its about.
Not all "art-forms" are there to make people happy and smile at how pretty and expertly done it is.
I say, give graffiteeers life imprisonment, make 'em earn that shit. Only the true nut-cases will survive. No more bourgeois wannabe "ghetto" kids on gap years making "statements".
Fuck the world with a saw-off aiiiight....
- i.e the more illegal it is, the more real it is.Khurram
- wordStylus
- +1akrokdesign
- Hoax0
as cool and artistic as it may have become, ultimately if you choose to do it on property that it is not yours, you are committing a crime. face up to it. i love graffiti, not that i can do it, but i love to look at it, on the streets at on canvas... but that doesn't excuse it. old school writers accepted their fate, they knew it was a crime. what's up with kids today crying about being thrown in jail for shit.
if you write your name 100 times in 100 different places, calculate the cost of cleaning that. it runs into the thousands. doesn't seem so harmless anymore.
with regards to having markers and spray cans, i can see no reason to be wandering the streets holding these if you have them for a legal reason, if you're on your way somewhere i'm sure it's no problem, as is the same for a hammer. if i buy a hammer and walk home with it in a bag, no problem. if i sat on the sidewalk, holding a hammer at night, hammer takes on a different meaning.
or something.
blah.
- not denying its a crime. but am opposed to the punishment being so out of line with the crimeautoflavour
- but with a hammer you dont have to prove you are not going to smash a window.autoflavour
- well you do, it is class an offensive weapon... theres no legit reason to sit around with cans of paint on the streets.Hoax
- and 6 months jail time / $2000 fine, for causing upwards of $2000 of damage? disproportionate?Hoax
- Stylus0
baaaahhhhh I'm autoflavour baaaaahhhhhh advertising is evil baaaaahhhhh i like stickers baaaaahhhhh i like fighting on the internet baaahhhhh I can't handle that the other kids don't think I'm cool baaaahhhh baaaaaahhhhh baaahhhhh
- time to put this sheep out of it's miseryStylus
- you're just a corporate whore tory scum! *writes name on your face*
HAH.Hoax - < wasn't being serious. incase anyone didn't get it.Hoax
- stylus you fascist oppressor! :)
http://4.bp.blogspot…babaganush
- ********0
Anyway. Tagging? Aren't you all about 30 years too late?
- stem0
"and is perpetrated by those who have no stake in their environment"
I get what you're saying - and I think this is justified.
However, most people I have known who did tagging/graffiti were just kids who came from "normal" family backgrounds, their parent(s) worked and had no major grievance with "The World" or "Society". They were by no means "Marginalised" or "Oppressed", I guess they were just a bit bored and after a bit of a buzz.
- exactly. Graffiti needs to go back to its roots of being perpetrated by the children of crack-whores. one.Khurram
- autoflavour0
i dont like fighting on the internet, and if any of the fucktards have actually read my arguments, would see that i am not actually PRO tagging, i am just a realist who understands you cant have one without the other.
because im out numbered doesnt mean you are right.. (except maybe right wing)
- autoflavour0
i concede.
you win.street art has no cultural value to anyone and should be banished.
- we beat you out of the mines and we'll beat you away from your marker pens!Hoax
- you didnt beat me. i just have better things to waste my time doing. like tagging your mumautoflavour
- +1Hoax
- stem0
No - street art has no cultural value to anyone and should be sandblasted
- 23kon0
Graffiti, when it adds interest/homour/something clever to an otherwise "nothing" spot is good. It doesnt have to be a creative masterpiece as long as it has had consideration for being added there and its not just some little rascal with a spraypaint can or marker pen writing his scrawl on every available inch of blank wall, door.
I'm definitely all for locking up and fining the little b*stards that go around tagging everything. Even better - an eye for an eye - tattoo their foreheads with something just as degrading as their crap tag.
The problem is how to determine whether or not they are doing something "art" or "crime". Maybe the best way to do it would be to put it to a panel of peers or a jury when their case goes to court.
Dont councils have like a Tag database, so that if you get caught once they can trace all the other stuff youve done and hold you accountable. Why's Banksilly not been locked up yet?
- 23kon0
i reckon the eye for an eye route and giving them a tattoo on their forehead is a good one, its definitely a punishment that matches the crime: it's a noticeable mark that is extremely difficult to remove but it is possible to remove it with time/effort/money.
show the little c*nts what its like ;)
- stem0
"The laws, which come into effect today, follow last month's Government announcement that graffiti crime was escalating and costing NSW more than $100 million a year"
Just an idea - maybe the money spent cleaning up graffiti could go someway to creating some decent public spaces which everyone can enjoy.
A group of graffiti artists could get involved with the local councils and work on public space projects. Get the skaters, bmx'ers involved as well.
I don't want to sound patronising but even these ideas are old and have been happening across Britain for ages.
Instead of feeling unheard and being treated like criminals, try getting involved in your community. Explain how you feel and tell people what your work is about. Maybe people will gain respect for it and see it in a completely different light and graffiti artists will be seen as artists in their own right. And your work will be seen and more importantly understood by more people.
- ********0
Prison'll learn 'em.
- mikotondria30
I love all forms of graffiti - from the arthouse type, to stencils and paste-ups to obsessive compulsive taggers who write their name 50 times in a row along a railway embankment, knowing that it will only be seen for the 5 seconds that it takes the train to pass, to those that write their tag on a sticker and put it in every phone booth I go into for months, to those that scrawl up wildstyle on a lonely kerbstone, with great can control fanning out the bottom of the letters, to huge and curiously expressioned faces up on a roof siding appearing overnight. It is a language and dialog all its own that has honestly fed my soul and endlessly inspired me since I was about 14. It is the most vibrant, living organic aspect of any city, and each city on every continent is different, and it's the 1st thing I look for whenever I go somewhere new. It is a conversation between so many people on so many levels, about art, public space, with a vast range of subtlety and detail - when it's done right, tags, stencils, throwups, all together, all competing yet complimentary, in the right place, its just glorious.
- stem0
So, mikotondria3, why does graffiti (all over the world) have such a homogenous look?
- mikotondria30
Cause it shares its roots in that classic graffiti that came out of new york in the 70s as part of hiphop, and that continues to inform aspiring writers everywhere still, but everywhere has it's own particular stylings - like any art or musical style - techno from brazil shares much in origin and style with that from berlin, but there are subtle and consistent stylistic variations
- stem0
Yeah, but it's essentially the same shit?
- The world is very samey nowadays. The only differences are in the countryside or poor areas..mikotondria3
- stem0
A funny story from 2006
http://www.smh.com.au/news/natio…
It's stuff like this which the public forms its opinions.
This guy is a tool...
- mikotondria30
He's only a tool so far because he's seen to be a hypocrite having said he'd educate kids about where to do graffiti then got caught doing it somewhere you'd imagine he would have said not to..
I'd have to see what he was painting to comment further on his toolness. He's not a tool simply because he's a graf artist.
- stem0
I agree miko, like you say, it's the hypocrisy. But what I find interesting is how it's been reported in the media.
I'm not sure why (maybe 'cos they are right wing - like some of you say), but the media take great pride in having a pop at graffiti artists and because of this, I think graffiti artists should be mindful of this and perhaps use it to their advantage. Use it as a means of getting their ideas/thoughts/grievances across.
I think what I find missing from most graffiti is a message. It just seems like making your mark for the sake of it, so in that respect it is very self-centered and egotistical.
All good art, whether it be street or otherwise, is stuff which connects with people. Stuff people can relate to. The majority of graffiti just seems like it's aimed at rival graffiti artists and not at the public. I guess it's got sucked up it's own arse.
I know loads of people have been doing stencils, but banksy, by fate, luck or very clever planning and i'm sure even marketing has managed to get into the public psyche. In pretty much the same way Damien Hirst managed to do years before.
They have both used their "small scale" art and brought them into the public domain via the mainstream media.
Everyday people commented on Hirsts work without even visiting a gallery.