Page 4354 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
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STREET ART
MS SZUTY (10.44): Madam Speaker, I move:
That
(1) the Government establish a co-ordination unit to facilitate, oversee and direct the use of appropriate identified public assets, for example, bus shelters, underpasses, community halls and centres, public toilet blocks and building walls for use by street artists, including aerosol artists;
(2) extensive community consultation be undertaken in respect of the public assets identified for decoration and include discussion with youth workers and relevant community centres; and
(3) the process referred to be completed by the end of semester 2 of the 1994 school year to enable the first artworks to be co-ordinated and undertaken over the 1994 mid year school vacation.
Madam Speaker, I had the unenviable task, when I last discussed the topic of street art, of following the Chief Minister's 1992 budget speech with a matter of public importance. The response I received from my fellow members at that time showed that they were indeed engrossed in a matter of public importance, the budget, and had possibly not fully comprehended my motives in suggesting that more legal space be made available to aerosol artists. The response was fairly negative and focused on the criminality of graffiti, the need to stop people from defacing other people's property and road signs, and the personal dislike of some members for the graffiti art-style.
Luckily, Madam Speaker, I was greeted with more enthusiasm from the general community, and I have received enough support for my earlier position to put forward what I feel is a worthwhile motion. Street art is the practice of communicating in an artistic fashion in a public place, the artwork adorning a public asset. To me, such public assets include bus-shelters, public toilets, building walls, community halls, underpasses and suitably large open and safe concrete stormwater drains. We have examples of this type of art already in bus-shelters, and there is some artwork on the walls of skateboard ramps and other areas where young people can see it.
Street art's main purpose is to communicate - a basic need for all human beings. Street art, like so-called "high art", is an artistic means of communication. I do not exclude the more orthodox art forms from my definition. I feel that people who feel a need to claim a public asset by decorating it should be able to nominate or ask for permission to carry out their own street art on that public asset. This includes people who are elderly or who have disabilities, or any other member of a group within the community - - -
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