Victoria: Labor Government Attacks Street Artists

Then you'll know what hit you.

It is a real shame. As a teenager I used to love traveling to the city
by train just to admire the works of graffiti artists along the way.
Now much of the colouful art is being covered over with grey paint.
Soon the only colour left for young minds to assimilate to will be that
of the advertising billboards at the stations. By 2019 we might yet see
a Philip K. Dick reality of every available square inch of our
environment containing an image of fashionable consumption.

A notorious tagger by the tag name of RENKS was the first 'vandal' to be given a gaol term of 3 months.

If I ever live to see a throw-up or 'powder-bomb' of a corporate logo on my line I will probably throw-up my self.

These laws make the same mistake this site is making... they do nor differentiate between Graffiti Art (examples I would suggest such as those on the website) and Bullshit vandalaism.

Point in case... a scrawled TAG is not ART! On someone's private property or items such a strain carriages IT IS VANDALISM not ART! Stop pissing in ur own pockets and admit that this stuff is little better than smashing stuff with a hammer. You have no right to insist that everyone should be compelled to view your signatures.

Perhaps what is needed is a"forum" for art and political expression to be posted in agreed areas.

'Fraid Graffiti art would not be the same then though huh, and would become uncool (like Ganja) because it doesn't break a law or offend anyone. Point... this is not about the ART for most of the "artists" but is a wankers outlet of signing their name on a wall and saying look at what I done. I think there would be no more problem if the TAG junkies left teh Art to the guys susch as those represented on this site. Show me rt and political comment and GO FOR IT... show me ur TAG and rot in jail wanker.

 Oh, and one more thing... ROT Renks, ur a vandal not an artist.

You want a world where nobody writes or draws anything on any public
or privatized walls unless it be sanction by government or council or
corporation.

Good luck.

Fuck you, heh heh heh!

Imagine, just for a moment, that if the cavemen way back in the day
criminalized writing on rocks. Where would our so called developed
world be then, huh? Advertising creatives and the fashion industry
would be at a total loss for ideas for a start! And nobody word drink
beer, buy new cars or rape young children.

I think the toys frighten the living crap out of you.

What you refuse to admit to yourself is that this world, this
infrastructure has been created for us, to contain us. It's sharp
angles and mezzanine levels keep us on the economic treadmill. Every
wall scrawl, political meme, every stencil, and yes every tag, by
people who creep around in the night, is a reminder of this social
construct.

Although I'm not a grafitti artist, I've done quite a few wall peices in laneways around the city...mostly stencils and stickers. I make a point of picking a place where I'm not destroying the asthetics of the environment, but rather enhancing it. Laneways are perfect because they're dirty and gritty.

Funny how these turds NEVER, absolutely NEVER, commit their 'art' onto their own property.  It's always someone else's.  Selfish, attention seeking cocksuckers all.

Not the 'artists' living at home with Mum and Dad  or renting somewhere which is subject to inspection by an agent.  If they want to paint on their own walls, great.  But public painting is is like those wankers who listento ther iPod turned up to the max so everyone else is subjected to THEIR personal tast in music, whether they like it or not.  Selfish, self-centred tossers who have no regard for anyone else's tastes. 

i think that we all have to adress this issue a little bit more responsibly and give a little attention to the historical and societal context of both identified forms of graff.