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My name is Ricky Lee Gordon. I am a graffiti artist.
I am originally from Johannesburg, South Africa
and I moved down to Cape Town two years ago.
I've been to the most amazing scenes in the world,
like Barcelona and London.
I've even painted in Morocco
and I've painted in Istanbul.
So graffiti is more than just an art form for me,
It's a lifestyle. I think I have always been into art,
my mother was an art teacher
and I was about 13 or 14 when I asked my mum,
and I told her I was into it and she was there to buy
my first cans funnily enough so I was never actually
doing it for anarchy or rebellion.
As far as I'm concerned, the city must separate their
issue with the difference between graffiti vandalism
and graffiti art, as this by-law they have drafted is
unconstitutional on three points.
It takes away the homeowner's right to do what they
want with their wall for creative freedom,
it takes away the artist's right to create artwork
in public space and it defines graffiti as all forms
of painting except for your house name and number.
So if I want to paint a mural for social awareness
or if I want to paint a mural for a nursery school
or if I just want to paint sunflowers on my house,
it's illegal unless I get permission from the city.
Seven years down the line we are now in the public
participation process where the city will
be finalising this by-law.
We were in a place where we didn't know where else
to turn and we felt like we were on our own
and it just felt unfair. We needed more support,
we needed someone to tell us exactly what the truth was,
what our rights were, so we approached the FXI.
They are the Freedom of Expression institute which
offers legal advice to artists with copyright issues
and censorship etc.
They have come on board pro-bono. They've issued
a letter to the city now,
during the public participation process
on their own behalf, they are not representing
us just yet. If the city does not listen to that letter or
to our alternative suggestions we'll have to take legal action
on our city, which means a graffiti artist will
have to be arrested to make a case
and I don't want it to be me.
When people hear the word graffiti they think of vandalism.
Graffiti is just a modern art form.
The oil painters of the eighteenth century would be using
spray cans if they had them.
Its quick, its effective and basically
vandalism is something completely different,
whether I throw a rock at a house or spray paint a house,
its vandalism.
It's also the big issue here is the jail terms.
They don't weigh up to the crime, if you get caught
you face up to three months imprisonment or
up to ten thousand rand (US$1000) fine.
Most graffiti artists are between the ages of 13 and
18 years old, they can't afford ten thousand rand and
if they do face jail terms it's going to
affect their lives drastically.
Graffiti is a very quick and cheap art form
so you can go into a community centre or
a children's home and you can create a sense
of hope within one day.
The funny thing about this mural is that if I were
to be doing it in three weeks I could face being arrested
but this wall belongs to Cape Town High School.
The mural is for "Do it day".
It's a national support your country initiative to encourage
South Africans to leave their house and do something for their
country, whether its painting a wall, painting a mural,
planting a garden, helping a neighbor or whatever it is and
it's quite funny that this is even the work that faces
getting removed by the by-law.