Graff art cops PCC spray

by Urszula Dawkins

April 11, 2008

OFFICIAL attitudes to graffiti art remain conservative in Perth’s CBD, despite it being a recognised part of the streetscape in other major cities.

While cities like Melbourne embrace high quality aerosol art, Perth City Council still has no policy other than graffiti removal.

Chair of the city’s planning committee, Judy McEvoy, explains.

 “There is no such thing as graffiti art,” Cr McEvoy says. “We don’t have a policy.

“Graffiti is graffiti, and it costs us hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove.”

Cr McEvoy describes graff art as “the bane of our life”.

However, Perth council media man Peter Jackson says the city is interested in all forms of art, and encourages artistic expression. He says the council is looking to do a street art project in a city laneway.

“It’s in the very early stages,” he explains. “I guess it’s a mural-type artwork which I assume would be done with aerosol.”

At Melbourne City Council, once scorned graff art is now being validated through a street art permit process and a graffiti mentoring program. Building owners can invite artists to use their walls for graff art, or can apply to have existing art retained under the permit system.

Melbourne’s Hosier Lane is famous for its ever-changing street art, and is often held up as an example of the city’s vibrant, hip culture.

Mr Jackson says that, in Perth, there’s a fine line between graffiti as an art form and graffiti as vandalism.

“So far as I’m aware, we haven’t had a lot of building owners come forward and say ‘yes I would like graffiti on my building’,” he deadpans. “We certainly don’t have a permit system as yet, but maybe if someone was to ask us to come forward and suggest that, we’d look at it.