Every night, a group of youths descend on Melbourne’s laneways, marking their territory and waging a war with spray cans over the extensive artworks and murals.
This is a common occurrence in Melbourne, leading to the City of Melbourne to declare in its Graffiti Management Plan that they will not protect street art.
According to statistics in the Plan, the highest number of graffiti vandals are in the 15 to 19 and 20 to 24 age groups in the City of Melbourne.
Media reports have suggested many street artists have been upset with their work being defaced or “tagged” by vandals, but according to the artists themselves they see it as adding another layer or story, and many of them started out as graffiti artists.
Mongolian-born street artist Heesco Khosnaran who started out as a young child by drawing on walls, said most youths do tagging due to problems at home and there are worse things they could be doing.
“I would rather kids putting up tags than doing other stuff. Like doing drugs or doing crime. The tag can be removed and the wall is not hurt,” he said.
Fellow graffiti and street artist Paul Round, who has worked as a graffiti youth project worker said doing graffiti saved him, but also said it is impossible to protect street art from vandalism by installing protective screens.
“As soon as you do that, it makes everyone loathe that guy within the scene,” Mr Round said.
Street artist Paul Round talks about his work as a graffiti youth project worker by Kristie_Sullivan
Stream Street artist Paul Round talks about his work as a graffiti youth project worker by Kristie_Sullivan on desktop and mobile. Play over 265 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.
Artist Julian Clavijo who has had his artwork stolen, said he would like to do more street art but said he does not like the tagging phenomenon among youths, even if artists have accepted it as inevitable.
“I’m not very open to tagging and things. I kind of think that is a lazy way of manifesting yourself and your name. I hate it. That’s the part I see as vandalism,” Mr Clavijo said.
Artist Julian Clavijo on his street artist friends and their reactions to tagging of their work by Kristie_Sullivan
Stream Artist Julian Clavijo on his street artist friends and their reactions to tagging of their work by Kristie_Sullivan on desktop and mobile. Play over 265 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.
But street artist Michael Fikaris said he actively encourages anyone to try their hand at street art.
“I’ve got to say over the years when someone does start, I’ve seen many people go on to become really active with their work and it becomes from a hobby or pastime, something to do on a nice day. It turns into something they might do three days a week, and be really focused on and enjoy their life even more,” he said.
Maybe it is time we all picked up a spray can.
