Page 4358 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 1993
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They have participated in the legal street art project and now produce one of the two major magazines of the graffiti culture, called HYPE. They are well known in street art circles in Canberra and interstate and have turned a formerly illegal activity into a career. To quote Bill Moulton:
We only did it because we'd always been artistic and there was no other way.
That is a quote from the Sydney Morning Herald of 14 July 1992, page 6. Canberra does have a culture of graffiti and street art "writers". Many have gained "legals" for payment and have applied for impact grants for assistance in painting some of the few "legal" walls that are available in the ACT, including bus interchanges, and for chronicling the activities nationally of graffiti practitioners.
There is a problem, as there was in Brisbane, with illegal graffiti activities. There are more young people interested in street art than is recognised in the amount of space currently being set aside. There will probably be other sectors of the community interested in claiming some public asset of their own. (Extension of time granted) The evaluation report of the legal street art project states:
From international evidence it has been found that the projects which help to reduce vandalism are those which tend to have a strong creative element and give participants a sense of ownership. Experience in a number of countries shows that preventing or minimising graffiti seems to depend on the right formula, or package of measures - police or railway police presence, electronic surveillance, quick and effective clean-ups, education campaigns, restrictions on the weapons or tools used, and programs and activities that prove more attractive to young people than "bombing" ...
We in Canberra probably have a better starting point than Brisbane police had when they initiated the legal street art project. We do not have the social imperative of responding to young people being killed in pursuit of their chosen art form. We do, however, have a common element in the subculture that sometimes goes with illegal street art. I again quote from the legal street art project report:
The polarisation of the debate about graffitists growth into dangerous criminals versus high spirited kids with a love of public art may be preventing a serious examination of graffiti as a symptom of extensive alienation, hostility and social malaise on the part of a growing number of youngsters. Children have a tendency to stick together against the adult world, but most of them grow out of it and take their places in adult society. Kids who join graffiti gangs and become absorbed in the graffiti sub-culture may tend to stay outside normal society. At best, this will cut them off from many of the benefits of participation in their community; at worst, it could lock them into a life of crime. The thesis of Mr Kolesnik may give some insight into the socialisation process of graffiti youth.
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