Recently, the state government here in WA announced a project to clean the streets of graffiti. Apart from the point that this will never work, they are just providing a blank canvas for all the graffiti artists, graffiti art is awesome, and it has in various forms been around for ages!

Now I may be saying this due to my age (24) but I absolutely love it, and especially the fact that it is done public places like at train stations and on city walls.

I will agree that what is called tagging, whereby the artist merely scribbles his name in his own handstyle, is not aestheticallly pleasing at all. The ability to produce complicated pieces is what separates the tagger from the graffiti artist and where the artist has invested time and skill into what he is doing it should not be removed. Here is a good example of what I am talking about as being aesthetically pleasing:

http://www-atdp.berkeley.edu/Studentpages/cflores/picture3.JPEG

But all too often this sort of art gets lumped into the same pile as tagging and therefore is removed from our city streets (as is happening in WA). Graffiti is a way of reclaiming the public space and can be political in this sense, but it also distracts us from all the marketing/advertising that we are saturated with, and is something that on a train trip I would rather see than a billboard advertising a product. Legaly or illegaly done, I say we leave it.

I dont have a problem where it is a picture or interesting graphic, and is on public property. Scribbling is stupid, and private property should be respected as such. Yes, it does have the ability to brighten up the streets, and governing bodies would be able to contribute to the better type of graffiti (artwork) by promoting competitions with prizes and the like for particular locations.

Thanks for your response CoutryGal. I guess though, it just depends on how you define it. One person may love what another hates.

Graffiti has been recognised as an art form and is on display in many galleries, however it is interesting to note that graffiti art spawned from tagging in the late 60s/early 70s, and most graffiti artists also tag (i know a few personally). How we can separate one from the other is a difficult problem and many would say to get rid of everything. Others have argued that legalising some areas for graffiti is a good idea. However it could also be argued that this is merely encouragement and leads to more instances of it being put up on private property.

Interestingly enough many now famous graffiti artists in the US say that they began with tagging and then moved on to art because the only other choice they had to gain the respect of their peers was through crime and drugs.

I love seing a building with a peice on it rather than just a plain painted wall. If I ever own a house then I would like to see a nice peice of graffiti on it.

Dont see why we cant pay the good ones to put up pieces in public places. plenty would be on the dole anyway, so we might as well pay them for doing something rather than nothing! I keep my stance on private property. However, if private citizens wanted to pay graffiti artists to paint their fences, then why not. Personally I prefer a nice white picket fence, but then I'm a conservative from the bush (although not that old - I'm not yet 30 either). The cities are dreary places anyway (at least they are to those of us that prefer blue skies and open plains), so I think they could do with some brightening up!

I think graffiti is a good thing for society as well, for it's artistic and cultural merits. What becomes objectionable and causes outrage is when the graffiti is put on something that is valued or artistic in it's own right and is then tarnished by grafitti. Of course then there are those people who object to any expression of culture that doesn't align with their values, but they should be ignored completely if they are unwilling to compromise and meet at halfway.

Steel, have you got an example to speak of when you say that graffiti has been put up over something already artistically valuable?

I am just curious because the fact that graffiti is done in public places is what I like the most and as I said it is abouit reclaiming our public space through the use of art.