I’m a little wound up about this, so I thought I needed to throw out my opinion.Recently there has been a Graffiti disaster at Millennium Park here in Calgary. Initially, the city decided it would be a great location for Graffiti to be displayed, and set forth a plan to have some of the talented local graffiti artists paint it.I’m not sure exactly what happened, but the entire park ended up getting tagged.From Washrooms to walls and everything in between including urinals! I’ve heard multiple stories; angry artists that went on a rant, kids showing up and figuring it was a free-for-all tagging location, no supervision being the prevalent theme.The upsetting part at this point is all the energy went into who was to blame over this, rather than being creative thinkers and trying to figure out if there was a way it could be fixed.
I toured the site today, and I can see evidence of what happened, but it’s all covered over in boring beige. If I recall the news, estimated costs for the clean-up were going to be around $50k. I guess when you pay that much you can get a lot done quickly as the painting was covered over in a day. Maybe they were just using very expensive paint, and if that is the case the city should really find another distributor.
I talked to a couple of city employees while I was there, and they said that some of the work was really beautiful, bu they don’t know exactly what happened (emotions and youth?).
This whole incident has managed to prompt much debate over the issue of whether Graffiti is art or vandalism. History seems to be currently weighing in on the side of the debate that it is vandalism. I have to agree that much of the Graffiti on display is purely vandalism. This is the work we generally see here in Calgary and is done by “Taggers”. A fast signature left behind by those who wish to just leave a mark. It makes me sad when I see this kind of things on stone or granite walls of our buildings as it isn’t art, it’s just marking territory. It’s messy and disrespectful.
When I was visiting Europe many years ago I was intrigued by the graffiti I glimpsed in the train tunnels and on box cars as we travelled. I realized then that it can be very beautiful, better than just a plain cement wall. So why not use some of these otherwise ugly facades to demonstrate the artistry behind some Graffiti. If you need some examples of Graffiti art to make a decision, just Google it and you will find many different styles.
David Brunning aka TheKidBelo is one of the artists who was at the forefront of the painting, and after traversing around his website I can understand why he was in the lead. His work is vibrant, energetic, and exciting. It’s not just a label. He takes into consideration the shape of the wall, has continuity in his work that plays with the negative space also. If I owned a building…David, you would be welcome to paint it!!
I have often thought of putting a proposal to the city to paint a Graffiti wall in one of the transit tunnels, but now feel that with the disaster at Millennium park they would be reluctant to let an artist do this type of thing in fear of a large outcry from the public (who I heard on one pole 95% voted that Graffiti is vandalism).I can’t believe that so many would be closed minded about this kind of thing. It makes me sad, but has spurred me to voice my own opinion, and even do some graffiti sketches of my own.Keep your eye on my blog as I incorporate this style into some of my work.I know… it’s not a far stretch for me.
I whole heartedly agree with you Karen. When I first heard about the Millennium Park fiasco I chucked a little at first. Then the chuckling turned to a sigh of dispair. What lame brain from silly hall thought this would be a good idea. And why are us taxpayers on the hook for such a lame brain idea.
Graffiti can be a beautiful way for one to express themselves. The one example that comes to mind is the mural on the side of the King Eddy, or somewhere in that vicinity. Looks like a hooded individual. That is true artistry, and obviously had some sort of supervison or permission to do such a piece of work.
But the mess at Millennium park was a mess from the word go. Kids with no minds of their own decided this was a great medium to drop a few “F” bombs and other disgusting street slang; thinking they were freely expressing themselves.
I have not been down to see what has come of the great graffiti experiment of 2009, but as you said I am sure there were some pretty cool pieces of ART that were covered up in the hurried attempt to hide ones mistake.
Whomever idea it was in the first place should be ashamed of themselves, and I hope at least a portion of the $50,000 came out of his or her salary.
The project unfortunately failed. I would be curious to see how it all came about.
I would honestly say that vast majority of what people call “graffiti” are tags, and to me personally is vandalism. Tagging being a quick one colour signature, taking less than a minute featuring a writer’s moniker offers nothing to the urban sprawl of the city. Tagging does not enrich my world, and hence the public outcry against graffiti.
The photos that I have seen of what happened at Millenium are essentailly vandalism, now that is not saying that there were not artists there that had some good black book designs to create and throw up on the walls there, but unfortunately that was lost admist the actions of those who probably had no business taking paint to a wall.
I am afraid that as “graffiti” has evolved, it has lost it’s way and become a misunderstood, formulated and contrived system, with a mere handful of true “graffiti artists” surrounded by vandals, and unfortunatley causing the artists to get lumped in with those who have no desire to do anything artistic or meaningful.