Art on wall and administration

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E-Pao! Travel log - Multi-culturalism at Melbourne

Art on the wall and administration at Melbourne

By: Chingshang *

Who cares?

Anybody can write anything on the road side walls, school buildings, houses, toilets, hospitals and what not and messages are directed mostly against the political establishments or just directionless angst.

No one bothers who wrote and what is the motive behind the writings. May be we do not have the time to bother or it’s not worth bothering as we have other larger preoccupations to handle. Unwanted writings on public properties are basically a form of public crime.

Above all we never consider graffiti as an issue worth discussing in our current administrative system. We, normally, less worry or never care about the implications of putting up posters or writing messages in public areas. Stick no bills messages on public or private properties gains no meaning.

In reality it hampers the upkeep of the images of the city. It spoils the cleanliness of the city environment and it actually conveys a rather negative picture of the whole administrative machinery to the outsiders.

It is high time for us also to see unwanted writings and drawing on public properties as something to talk about and prepare appropriate policies and programs in decision making to tackle the issue.

Many may not agree to the statement as we have not considered it as an issue due to the low intensity of its prevalence or seer negligence. But it is a fact to be seen and felt while walking around Imphal city.

Why only Imphal city when it is everywhere in the country? Writings and drawings in public toilets and buildings are to be seen to believe. We never give a second thought on such manifestations of unseemingly harmless act.

Who cares? Most of the graffiti drawn in the city is straightforward and not complicated and it does not require deciphering. But it is gaining momentum as the years passes by. People are more familiar with the writings of messages by many underground groups in the state with serious political tones. That’s all.

Probably we considered ourselves as not mature enough to address the issue due to several socio-economic and political complications. But we need to address it before it becomes a part of an unhealthy existence. We can discuss both pros and cons of graffiti culture and ensuing gratifications that can be a part of the city planning in the larger context.

A graffiti in Melbourne, Australia

Graffiti is the collective name for images or letters scribbled, scrawled, scratched, sprayed, marked or stenciled in any style mostly on public properties. It can be anything from a simple scratch to a very complicated painting. It is often viewed as public vandalism or unsightly damage.

Sometimes graffiti is employed to convey social and political messages. Normally graffiti artists used certain tags to hide their identity. Tags are the signatures of the artist concerned. Public frowns at such attitude of defacing the public properties.

To some people, it is a form of art worth displaying at art galleries. There is a lot of debate on the issue of graffiti all over the world and Melbourne is not an exception. This article draws its inspiration from personal observation, published information and many web reviews.

Melbourne street art scene has the dubious reputation of being the finest in terms of diversity, originality and quality in the world. It is considered as the capital of stencil graffiti art and a book entitled ‘Stencil Graffiti Capital: Melbourne' was published very recently.

Melbourne’s innovative painting styles have been a key player in the development of global street art, it is argued. But it is not an acceptable art form to public administration. It is addressed as public vandalism and looked down as an unwanted, unwelcome and intolerable act.

Government has comprehensive plan to tackle this graffiti issue. City of Melbourne is strongly committed in providing a safe, clean, vibrant and welcoming atmosphere to all its visitors, residents and workers. It has constructed a network of massive infrastructures in the form of laneways, streets, and public buildings as part of its commitment to citizens.

Very often these infrastructures are subjected to the act graffiti vandalism diminishing city’s projected image and efforts. Hence the administration has taken all the possible steps to declare Melbourne city as ‘zero tolerance zone’ to graffiti art.

It has published a comprehensive graffiti management plan for the city to root out this presumably menacing form of art. Graffiti removal and tackling the associated issues are very high on the administrative agenda of the government.

Administration lays strong emphasis on community participation to provide a better and safe society and stamp out graffiti. The following link gives information regarding the initiatives of the administration on graffiti issues at Melbourne.

A graffiti in Melbourne, Australia

The administration plans to spend not less than A$1 million to get rid of the graffiti from the major train entrances to the city. Most of the public areas in Melbourne are spotlessly clean. The initiative and implementation of the sanitation work in the city is one of the finest orders.

This can be seen and felt by anybody who is interested to use public utilities. Upkeep of the existing city infrastructure is just marvelous. Public utilities like toilets and drinking water areas are definitely well maintained in good health. The city of Melbourne has set a very high standard of cleaning its streets, laneways, drains and footpaths.

The cleaning work is contracted to a professional cleaning service provider to ensure its high standard. CBD streets and laneways are cleaned everyday and higher usage areas are normally many times a day. They maintained a close link between the parking facilities and cleaning works too.

It is strongly looked upon those vehicles which are not parked in the designated parking areas as it hinders the cleaning activities on the street not only risking the parking fine. I really like the innovative display cylinders planted at convenient spots to display news items, posters, caricatures, banners and so on.

These spots provide the required space for the items to display without encroaching to other spaces and spoil it unnecessarily. So one hardly find posters or banners pasted or hanged wherever one wishes to. I have not seen any banner hanging from the trees or buildings on any thoroughfares of the Melbourne cityscape so far.

They have erected designated banner posts in the city centre and suburbs. But the major activity that the city administration considers as an act of crime on its usually clean infrastructures is graffiti culture. It strongly condemns this act and put up all the possible steps to root out the scene.

It is believed that lots of innovative and original graffiti arts have been whitewashed during the preparation of commonwealth games in recent times in the city. Government is spending in millions for this clean up act. Graffiti spoils millions of dollars worth of properties each year, it is opined.

Actually, everything is very interesting regarding the graffiti culture. Now you can see even the emergence of new companies which specializes in removing graffiti and production of graffiti resistant coatings. It is also becoming like any other normal business house.

But I feel that graffiti art is still not completely diminished from the cityscape of Melbourne despite government’s sincere efforts. I have come across lots of arts in different parts of the city and suburbs. Today internet is also fuelling the creative urge of the graffiti artists to showcase their new creations to a much wider audience than it was possible before.

A lot of new creations are posted over the web instantly. Internet has become a platform for these artists to exercise their freedom beyond the restrictions of the administration. Artists draw their art in some secluded places which can not be easily caught in the act by the peeping eyes of the security and simply posted on the internet.

Number of sites on the web about graffiti at Melbourne is swelling over the years. Some of the art are just mind blowing and you can feel the amount of creative energy involved in it. On the other hand, there are also some sorts which you feel that whatever the administration takes up against graffiti is absolutely right.

A graffiti in Melbourne, Australia

There is no valid theory to explain the emergence of active graffiti culture in Melbourne even though some isolated opinions credited to laid back attitude and sense of isolation of the country from other parts of the world.

The other day I come across this interesting piece of article about graffiti in Melbourne and it mentioned the existing culture in a rather satirical manner. To quote here “Witty, playful, often angry, the free rein taken by Melbourne's street artists became about much more than just daubing on a wall.

It has drawn in generations of artists, thinkers and tourists to explore and experiment in the city. It gave fresh life to the worlds of fashion and music and is arguably Australia's most significant contribution to the arts since they stole the entire Aborigines' pencils “(Bansky).

Actually graffiti arts are visually very appealing with its vibrant colors. These days’ artists used lots of aerosols in the spray to give a very distinctive look and an art can be made faster. Most of them are found to be drawn in vacant properties, narrow laneways, rail track walls, bridge walls, freeway walls, walls along the subway etc.

But many of them are on the clearly visible faces. The themes cover all imaginable things possible and so are the embedded messages. The following blog video provides a glimpse of the Melbourne stencil graffiti culture.

There is a lot of debate on graffiti arts culture in recent times, whether it should be allowed in some designated areas or should it be completely stamp out. But the final verdict is very clear on the part of the administration to root out this menace in any form.

Some of the opinions in the run up of the debate are very exciting. For and against opinions are just mind blowing and opens up layers of information beneath the whole issue. Blogs and web polls provide some deep insights into this normally hard to discuss topic for many reasons.

Well, the trend is almost like a win-win situation. As much as the administration attempts to an end of the graffiti culture, the artists will also ensure that art survives for a longer period of time. Who is right is the sole answer which is rather more ambiguous.

But if you look into the government’s initiative in providing the best of service to communities for a healthy living on a clean, safe and secure environment is non negotiable. The debate will go on and opinions will be diverse as much as the diversity itself in Melbourne.

The following site gives an insight into the graffiti world of Melbourne in all its hues. This article seeks no intention to address the right and wrong of the whole issue and any criticism on the article solely bears by the author. See you again in the next article.

Check out the gallery on "Graffiti at Melbourne" here.

* Chingshang, a Graduate student at University of Melbourne, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be contacted at rockm(at)rediffmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on December 16th 2007.

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