*Misha

Berlin remains unbuffed due to the sheer scale of the city. trains also roll with large pieces just because there are more important uses for money than cleaning up art…

some pieces, in and around the east in Prenzlauer and Kreuzberg have been there since graf started. pretty amazing.

*digs around for the vid of the train ride in berlin*

Tho i have to add.. sadly; we have a *lot* of bad toy pieces in welly. And lots of shit tagging. as with most things here; the talent moves overseas.

But thats not saying that there aren’t still crews doing amazing stuff as peeps can see in wellington wall st and streetarse (<3 y’all) it’s just getting buried under beige.

heyladynz:

There is too much of this going on country wide. 20 years of street art was destroyed in Wellington recently because the city council felt it needed to be cleaned up in time for the Rugby World Cup. We now have a beige alleyway, that has been cordoned off to prevent any further art, instead of graf covered walls that hid a litany of leaks and pipes. 

In the UK Channel 4 is getting behind street culture and running programmes dedicated to what they call “street-level genius”. They are offering mentoring from established artists for anyone who wants to get involved, whether they have worked on a wall before or not. 

The time has come for NZ to stop revelling in its overly PC culture and recognise these pieces for what they are, not tagging by kids with no clue, but amazing works of art created by some of the most talented souls around. 

This sort of work is celebrated in Berlin, commissioned by the city council in Melbourne and covered up with bland nothingness in New Zealand. Something is very wrong with our mentality.

sisterdarling:

Why is a replacement being sought when the easy fix is to give the wall back to Askew and his friends? The budget earmarked for this replacement mural is around 10K. That’s 10 thousand rate payer dollars that needn’t be spent - simply so one man can continue his agenda against ‘name based artwork’.

cutcollective:

The Poynton Terrace wall that was painted out by the Auckland City Council under specific direction from the anti-graffiti taskforce is now been officially put out for tender to paint a replacement artwork.

This wall has a very contentious backstory: essentially a wall that has been painted largely by TMD and RFC for over the last 10 years (it’s partner on the opposite side of the laneway was demolished to make way for the Chatham a few years ago). Earlier this year council contractors painted out the mural that was in place (by Askew, Berst and Deus) and when questioned expressed their reluctance and hesistancy in painting out what was clearly a legitimate piece of art. They checked directly with their supervisor Tony Crampton who insisted that they were to proceed.

In the following fallout that included a 1000 plus signature petition expressing the outrage at the councils actions, and  Len Brown appearing on Russell Brown’s show Media 7(skip to chapter 2), and clearly stating it was a mistake of the contractor and then avoiding the specific issue when questioned about the role of the graffiti prevention team played in this, and their seemingly ongoing role in arranging a replacement artwork.

So now we have a call for tender for artists to submit proposals to win the contract to paint the wall. The councils position on this is they are just facilitating a replacement artwork on behalf of the owner.

We don’t accept that it is as simple as that. Rob Shields, the councils anti-graffiti zealot, has played a very prominent role in this whole fiasco and now is extending a inteferring hand in the selection of ‘appropriate’ artwork to now go on the wall. This process is working outside of the area in which we’d normally expect to see the councils art advisory team taking care of. How is it that the very person who ‘erroneously’ oversaw the painting out of this mural is now in the chair that oversee’s what artwork replaces it?

Why is a replacement being sought when the easy fix is to give the wall back to Askew and his friends? The budget earmarked for this replacement mural is around 10K. That’s 10 thousand rate payer dollars that needn’t be spent - simply so one man can continue his agenda against ‘name based artwork’. And you only need check the details of the tender document to see that this is clearly the case.

“The building owner asks that the mural not be signed”

“The design should not incorporate elements that could be mistaken for vandalism”

In 10 years the owners nor tenants have never had a problem with the art on the wall being of a graffiti nature. And now they do? Bullshit.

We urge anyone who feels the same way we do to email Sheridan Dickson,Public Art Asset Manager at the Auckland Council outlining how you feel about the way this whole affair has gone down. He is administering the tender process on behalf of the council and is publicly listed as the point of contact.

sheridan.dickson@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz 

At the end of the day we are letting the pet agenda of a bunch of out-of-touch unelected fanatics shape our environment in the face of over-whelming public opinion.

rimonitmd:

Future going forward?

Went along to finally have a look at the wall on Poynton Terrace and it really does look miserable.  This is what the future holds for us as far as visual arts go?  Grey walls waiting for bureauRATs to finish shuffling paper so that council appointed and approved “art” gets to go up around the same time flying cars and teleportation are the norm?  Screw that crap…