Graffiti always gets bad press. Lock the hooligans up, says the chamber of commerce, bill their parents, says the local mayor, it makes people feel unsafe, it deters tourists and on and on go the cries.
Recently, NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos called graffiti writers and artists ‘vandals’. He foreshadowed new anti-graffiti laws as part of a ‘crackdown on youth crime and anti-social behaviour.’ And he announced a review of all legislation covering graffiti in NSW. The report is expected soon.
Will the review lead to another failed package of measures to keep NSW trains, buses and buildings neat?
Or will Mr Hatzistergos look beyond the loud but ill-informed cries of the lock-‘em-up brigade?
The most important thing to know about controlling graffiti is that instant removal is the most effective response. Overwhelmingly, graffiti is done by males under the age of 18 years who engage in petty tagging games. Hauling the odd few before a magistrate for a stiff sentence is over-kill. Besides, has such an approach worked anywhere in the world?
Beyond tagging, graffiti includes lots of other things. My first memory of something writ large on a wall was on the railway bridge at Revesby in the 1960s. “Ban the bomb” it shouted. And when I visited my cousins at Paddo I saw “Stop police verbals.” The work of vandals?
Today, graffiti refers also to full-wall ‘pieces’ and clever, witty stencils. Lawyer Naomi Messenger argues (at artslaw.com.au) that these forms of graffiti have claim to be genuine art forms under law with artists holding copyright irrespective of their having been drawn on walls illegally or while trespassing.
It’s humorous, isn’t it, that it’s cool for our favourite shop to have its decor emblazoned with a graffiti piece and for our kids surf wear to be covered in tags, yet we want the town centre to be an impeccably groomed place for coffee and cake (after we’ve finished our real shopping at the air-conditioned mall)?
Graffiti is a complex thing. Its form and location tell us much about what is happening in our city. Controlling graffiti, if that is what we want, requires that we understand and value graffiti, the taggers, the writers, the artists. Otherwise, the incidence of graffiti – and its blatant opposition to heavy-handed authority – can only increase.
*Phillip O'Neill is Professor and Director of the Urban Research Centre for the University of Western Sydney. He contributes regular comments on the issues facing the Sydney metropolitan area.
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