Graffiti or art? Expression in the modern age

By Daniel Ziffer
May 14, 2007

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Is stenciling simply glorified graffiti? Have your say.

Colourful "stencil" works on inner-city streets have made Melbourne a globally renowned hub for the controversial art form.

But as debate rages in local councils about what constitutes graffiti, and how to prevent it, a festival is aiming to expose stencil art to new participants.

Satta, who declined to reveal his birth name, is co-director of the Stencil Festival, which runs until Sunday before heading to Shepparton, Ballarat, Sale, Newcastle, Sydney and Brisbane.

"I don't go out there to piss people off," he said. "I go out to beautify."

The festival began as the form exploded in the streets towards the end of 2003. Back then, the only people interested were artists themselves, the 32-year-old Brunswick man said.

"Now we're trying to broaden the audience. We get emails asking, don't you want to come to Brazil? Well, yes!"

Brazilian artists Rica P and Celso, members of the Sprays Poeticos Collective, merge poetry and street art in their performances, and are one of the many groups performing at concerts, workshops, "live sprays" and events.

The ability of stencils - outlines cut into paper - to be quickly sprayed with aerosol cans made them popular with a fast-moving generation of graffiti artists.

The City of Yarra has sponsored the festival with a $4000 grant. The council spends $125,000 annually tackling graffiti, and notes the difference between unsightly "tagging" and beneficial "street art".

Tagging is where people scrawl a graphic, usually representing their name, and is common on trains and on urban walls. Stencils tend to be placed in designated zones.

Cr Judy Morton said Yarra housed "some great examples of stencil artwork", which had led to "the creation of some fantastic local public art works".

"Council takes a multi-faceted approach to tackling the issue of graffiti in Yarra, which involves removal, enforcement and education," Cr Morton said.

The council's focus is on removing and preventing tagging, and Cr Morton said its support for legal public art didn't mean comfort for "people who defaced property".

Satta isn't as clear on the definition, calling tagging the "elementary" level of street art.

"I'm not a big fan of tagging myself," he said. "But I respect it."

Stencil artists work to a different code.

"No one would ever spray stencils on a place of worship, a cultural or heritage listed building, or a mum-and-dad store," Satta said.

"If you go to a house and they've freshly painted it, they want it to remain like that."

Works are reaching a larger audience, with pieces at the North Fitzroy festival centre ranging from $140 to $6500.

Strafe, a 25-year-old Melbourne artist, said many elements attracted her to the form. Including freedom.

"I was a little bit set up doing formal art (for a tertiary degree). And then this began happening . . . for no set criteria," she said.

"They weren't being assessed for it. They weren't selling it."

She avoids the pop imagery common in stencil art - rock stars, celebrities, film characters - focusing instead on minimalist expression.

"Most street art has a really striking style," she said. "That's the appeal. It's very succinct."


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