Sydney, Graffiti, Art and the council

Will Cole recently put me onto this article in SMH about recent sydney council’s crack down on graffiti and street art.

The council spends $3 million on graffiti and poster removal every year. Even private property owners who commission graffiti-style artworks without a development application can expect to have their walls painted blank soon after. The council says rapid eradication is needed to dissuade taggers and prevent streets from looking unsafe but some, like Kings Cross resident Michael Gormly, are sick of the tidy-town mentality.

“They spend millions on these one-off events like Art & About rather than just taking the screws off a little and letting the city become an interesting place,” he said. “That’s how Melbourne got a Melbourne-style culture.”

Even though Clover Moore has recognised aerosol art as legitimate. She obviously likes what street art represents, but doesn’t want to help the private citizens who genuinely would like to commission local artists.

What fat council worker, whose weekly culture consists of watching funniest home videos, has the power to decide what is “Art” and what isn’t. Based on a development application that costs hundreds of dollars? Sydney capitalism working at its best. Soon it’ll be just figurative painting, flowers, advertising and landscapes to be seen on the streets, Booorrhoooring.

If you ever wandered why sydney’s street art has a playfully violent theme to it, just look to the authoritarian councils passing legislation to suppress it.