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who do you think owns the street?
owns the street?
taxpayer
taxpayer?
yeah
my taxes are high, because little punks go out and graffiti trains
graffiti walls, bus stops, buildings...
that's why taxes are high
so I'm paying for it aren't I?
so if I'm paying for it, I'm entitled to an opinion
my opinion is I want a clean wall
from the history books of the past to hurried city streets
adelaide's forgotten outlaws emerge, behind every face a story
a bold undertaking artist Peter Drew posting the pictures right across town
he relates to the criminals because he's one too.
the criminals walked these very streets, but they lived in a different world
this is Moira Jackson, arrested in 1920
her crime, attempted suicide
it was pretty funny when I got arrested
because when you're making street art it doesn't feel like you're breaking the law
and in my own mind it's not a criminal act, any more than things like
sodomy or attempted suicide
but, if you go back 90 years
sodomy, attempted suicide and a whole range of other things that we basically
didn't understand
were considered criminal acts.
and thats exactly why I stuck up those mug shots.
to remind people that, things change, because I think in a city like Adelaide
you can forget that things change.
although the mug shots were all installed illegally
I was offered a deal by the Adelaide City Council
they would agree not to remove the posters, if I'd let the council include them
as part of one of their projects
so why doesn't the council just embrace the uncommissioned work of
all street artists
and not just mine?
I think those posters were a powerful statement about the tolerance of the city
and the tolerance of this organisation and the open-mindedness of the community
we did have one or two complaints, but we had virtually no complaints
in fact a huge number of compliments
it's a complex issue when you're dealing with a bureaucracy that has to
follow rules and regulations
but that's the challenge we've set the council
the mug shots turned out to be very popular
the fact that it was illegal was actually something that council wasn't comfortable with
but they were trying to encourage street art at the time
so when the property owners weren't complaining
then council didn't rush out and clean them off
so basically my illegally installed street art was approved
just because it was popular
maybe its worth asking the people of Adelaide
what they actually do and don't like about street art
it adds beauty to the street i reckon
I mean who wants to see a grey concrete wall?
I prefer this was just clean
leave it as a wall mate
why do we need colours?
I kind of don't like tagging
the really crappy spray graffiti stuff
the difference is the stuff that in my mind
that's just tags for the sake of tagging
rather than colour and an outcome and expression
I know they're both expressions
but tagging just doesn't seem to go anywhere
it shouldn't come as any surprise that most people like street art
but don't like tagging
the only problem is that artists say
that tagging, is street art
you know, I don't think anyone would be surprised when they see me using an aerosol can
that I have experienced on...
well... it's where I started
that there is that sort of hidden underlying thing of
oh... now you've moved on and you're better than that
where it's just thats the whole foundation of the art form
and so there's that constant interplay with
oh you're a professional now and then you dismiss everything below you
the roots of where you came from in a way
is that how you started, just with tagging?
yeah. I mean well
you've got to learn to crawl before you can...
run from cops I guess
yeah, you know, you start
most people start off doing basic stuff, scrappy stuff
but what you can get out of it from spending time using it. I mean
a spray can is like a miracle of alchemy
It's a gas, it's a solid, it's a liquid, and
I feel like Im still at the point where
I'm just discovering what you can do with a can
see most people don't actually understand what street art really is
because they say they like street art
but then on the other hand they don't like tagging
but tagging is the origin of street art
see, I think this argument has less to do with what's popular
and more to do with what can be controlled
I think that if we create an experiment
where we can make tagging controlled...
not only would it be popular
but the council wouldn't have any kind of problem with it
and then we can confront the council with it
my latest project is an experiment
to take one of the least popular forms of street art
and make it popular
rather than remove the posters
the councils cleaning team were good enough to paint over any offensive tags
leaving the rest
so the experiment worked
by making tags controllable
we were able to make them both popular and accepted by the council
I didn't quite understand your comment about tagging
are you saying thats a legitimate form of street art?
To me its like a dog lifting it's leg everywhere
That was exactly the point of me bringing it up
everyone has that opinion of tagging
except for street artists
one for example is James Cochran
who's actually in the State Gallery
he has just finished painting a mural in London for the Olympic Games
he's one of the worlds most talented aerosol artists
and once upon a time, he was just tagging
so I think a lot could be done to change the perception of
what is after all just marks on a wall
so its a few days after the council meeting
and the council has removed the poster
because basically people started tagging outside of the lines
and to me the whole thing just goes to show that
you can't control street art
It's a really odd kind of situation
because on the one hand, they want all these public art work projects
that are kind of 'graffiti inspired' or 'street art inspired'
but then if anything is illegal
and comes from something really true
which is like actually people just going out at night
and painting and things like that
then they kind of have issues with that
And so I think they sort of want to be able to control it
which I guess is understandable...
you don't control it
you don't get to choose pretty murals and dissuade ugly graffiti
I think the council could be a little bit strategic about it
if they wanted to control it but ultimately there is no control
and thats really where the beauty of the art form comes from
so one of the ways that council has tried to control the chaos of street art
is by establishing free walls
where anyone can paint anytime they like
but this is what happened to the first of these walls
when council realised that it couldn't be controlled
so, when they offered a replacement underneath the Morphett Street Bridge
Matt Stuckey painted this statement
I'd like the discussion to move more away from
what can council do, what can council do
I don't feel like its councils fight, all the way
it's great if they can instigate some things
but there has to come a time
where it just becomes a discussion between the artists and the property owners
or just interested members of the public, intermediaries maybe you know a guy
that's got a warehouse and you know a guy that does painting
so you put two and two together.
I don't really see that the council needs to be involved
if we can get the young budding street artist...
opportunities to do things other than just to leave a tag on 20 separate buildings
and we can find space where they can actually produce work
that's going to help them with their careers
I'd rather that than having 20 buildings tagged with a little symbol
with property owners you've got a greater chance of getting something through
and much quicker
because all youve got to deal with is the property owner
most people who put stuff up there would come and ask me
and I would say "yeah look, it's ok between the door and the back wall
that's fine, don't do anything else"
and they were cool about that
street art itself is fine, I like it
it can be at times very clever
see, I think its a good thing that property owners are beginning to recognise
the value of street art
but theyre not the only ones
the Art Gallery of South Australia is just the latest in a string of major
art institutions to engage with street art
so, can you really take work off the street, put it in a gallery
and still call it street art?
when they asked me to be involved
I got around this question by taking works out of the gallery
putting them up on the street for anyone to take
but its still a difficult question
thats why I think its a good idea to speak to James Dodd
who's been making work on the street
and in the gallery since the early days of Melbourne Street Art.
it's an incredibly complex culture, street art
so you cant expect people to understand that quickly
and sometimes its going to take projects to be undertaken
to get to the other side of someones understanding of street art
so for example, it's better that an institution tries to do something
without completely knowing what they're doing
in order to develop that understanding
rather than saying
"oh you dont know what youre doing, therefore don't do it."
which is a dead end
so its a bit of a catch 22
of course theyre never really going to understand everything
but thats not the point
they're not experts, street artists, are the experts
institutions are just experts in bureaucracy
I see a difference between public art and graffiti
I recognise your point that somebody starts off at some point just making a mess
with a spray can,
may actually develop talent and become what I would call an artist.
my only suggestion is that they practice in their own house
at the moment under our system, because we have the law being enforced
by particular people
whether they're council officers or policemen
most people have some disgression as to whether they take the extra step
and prosecute things
and because they have that disgression and they do recognise things that
are receiving broad support
you find on occasions people aren't prosecuted, when technically they might be
now, if you try and define that down to too-fine-a-point
you'll move all disgression out of the system
and I don't think thats going to be good for a vibrant city
and I don't think thats going to be good for people who have great artistic ideas
so maybe its alright that we don't fully understand
better that, than to pretend we do understand
and try to control something that can't be controlled
personally, Im glad that there are no simple answers
and that everyone has a slightly different idea about
WHO OWNS THE STREET
that's a pretty big question.
well, everyone
I'd like to say me, but um
unfortunately its probably... Stephen Yarwood
people of South Australia own the street
well I guess, the people
whoever looks at it
the streets do belong to everyone
but the buildings dont belong to everybody
anyone that... uses a street, or anyone that uses a space
well...
it's community property...
it's community property