This month, Scott Mulhearn, Adrian Hing, Luke Vassell, Jack Shumack, Alex Wisman, and Marcus Wisman – were sentenced to a cumulative 52 months of jail time in London – and I couldn’t give a shit.
The Sydney-based spray-painters (aged 21-24) were all part of the aging AMF crew and were arrested in London in December last year.
Now, regardless of how you feel about graffiti, I’m a little pissed off that the underground media has been sucking their collective cock with a groupie-esque fervour ever since the news hit Sydney.
Firstly, to travel to London just to tag the trains is lame enough, but to do such a thing in a city famous for their CCTV coverage is absolutely, fucking moronic.
Secondly, tagging trains is the graffiti equivalent of wearing a slogan T-Shirt. These arseholes deserve to be locked up, purely for holding back an art form.
Graffiti has been trying for years to be taken seriously, or at least be acknowledged for it’s importance to society… but as long as people like AMF are still tagging trains, the road ahead is set to stymie with brightly-coloured wild-style.
And while I understand that for graffiti to keep it’s ‘bad-boy’ persona, a few laws have to be broken along the way, what I can’t stand is for the medium to only remain in the public eye, utilising the same, dated techniques as back in 1974.
But ‘whether painting trains is cool’ is not the point that angers me the most. What really gets me down is I simply cannot understand why the graffiti community has rallied behind these bland, beige arseholes.
They weren’t attempting some brilliant stunt, they weren’t expanding the art form, they were simply doing what they’ve been doing in Sydney for the last decade, in a new city. And let’s not pretend that London needed some more trains painted, let’s not even suggest that the trembling tube needed a few Sydney inspired pieces to complete their collection. I’m sure it didn’t mean fuck all to the people of London.
What is worse, is that they attempted this boring attack on the tube – knowing that London had an extensive CCTV system! Yet the graffiti culture still seems amazed that these retards are locked up?
If an Australian is caught with drugs in Singapore and sentenced to life, the Sydney drug community doesn’t get behind them and throw petals at their feet, they don’t write odes in their bong blogs… instead – a cooperative, disdainful sigh is let out and the sidewalk cafes of this great city are filled with vicious, sneering, mockery.
Fuck these arseholes – hang ‘em for all I care.
If you’ve got a toilet door that needs some jazzing up…
George Bannister
Graffitists buy the risk and are willing to pay time for their crime. That makes it a puzzle for me too.
But I’m not impressed by churlish, superior commentary like this. It’s a bit tiresome.
It’s a thrill to me, to see that people will go so far, and take such a risk, to do a good job on a train. I’d rather celebrate it.
But thanks for alerting me to this.
http://www.wallup.net/
Hi Colin,
Cheers for the feedback and I get your point, but should we really celebrate unoriginality?
I enjoyed some of the pieces on your website and most of them show a lot of creative forethought, but throwing-up the same word world-over is bland art regardless of how you look at it. And that’s what we’re looking at here.
Cubism has lost all credibility – why not graffiti?
Thanks for the response.
I can’t judge the London train bombing in artistic terms. I have only seen the pictures you show, and I have no confidence in my judgement of what is an esoteric form that does not conform to the linear progression demands of the gallery art world.
I just marvel that people will go so far, and take such trouble, and accept such risk, to do such a thing.
From what I can see, the train looks better with the bubble lettering than a clean train.
I find it weird that so many painters will expend their entire artistic impulse on such a mannered pursuit as only applying oils to stretched canvas, framing it, displaying it for a short time on gallery walls, then handing it over to the buyer to hide away forever.
And then to conform meekly to the idiotic, demands of that art world, to accept that cubism has been out of fashion for decades, therefore the style has lost its credibility…
Seems perverse and silly to me.
Spraypaint is so last century. What we SHOULD be doing is LED Throwies. I saw them back in London and I think they’re a great way to confuse the fuck out of people. I can’t see you getting locked up by old bill either…
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=6
I think that trains look better when tagged ! I dont get why the government takes it so seriously and doesnt just leave it ! well obviously its a commercial world and graffiti is really advertising yourself, they dont want that, so those guys deserve a respect for their bravery knowing that they were doing something against the system, which is a total art thing to do. Their stupidity is essentially their rebelion.
i have 3 degrees in art and take my graff seriously – its my living
i teach paint and offer tours of newtown
if some bogan retard kids wanna be “oldschool” and embrace vandalism, unorigionality and the the whole lifestyle that goes with it let them. Some of theme even have lawyers and family to bail them out of anything.
Graff isnt about just trying to fit into the respectable art world – thats for the middle class educated kids that will get careers and probably quit after a few years of streetart – when they have made it
most of my hardcore writer friends come from poor backgrounds and hate the whole world of respectible art – they have their reasons and its fair enough – many have plenty of real problems and use graff
as the only chance to get some peer respect – something the rest of society wont give them. Is it even graffiti if it is legal is a fair point. I did a lot of shit tags and throwups when i was in constant pain from arthritis – art or credibilitry were not on my mind.
Whatever reason you do graff or street art you are being a bit of a dick to sombody – even if you have bvecome decent – art needs graff more than graff needs art
Hey Konsumterra,
Thanks for the educated insight.
It’s great to see graff being discussed in an educated way.
Over the years, I’ve met plenty of the “have lawyers and family to bail them out of anything” crowd and blame them for a lot of what’s going on right now.
But the crux of this issue is based heavily on your final point:
“art needs graff more than graff needs art”
Brilliantly put.
Cheers for the input,
George