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The nuisance grafitti / tagging thread


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#1 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 09 October 2009 - 02:56 PM



I'm on a crusade*, to get rid of it. I CRUSADE I tell ya!



* minus the blood and fighting.

#2 victorian fan

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Posted 09 October 2009 - 03:58 PM

No art value whatsoever. Defacing public property is a crime.

#3 North Shore

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Posted 09 October 2009 - 05:48 PM

I always assumed that the average age of those tagging is about 15, so I figured that walking around with a jiffy marker and writing "is a fag" after each and every tag would drive the poor bottle-fed dears to conniptions. However, that contributes to the problem:mad:
Say, what's that mountain goat doing up here in the mist?

#4 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 10 October 2009 - 11:36 AM

I've sent some pix to Charlayne T-J, I know she'll have the City on it to remove all that crap. That's at the top of Discovery, at Blanshard.

#5 newostar

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Posted 13 October 2009 - 06:37 PM

I"m really in favour of having community groups do murals around town with the guidance of local artists.

It adds a great feel to our neighborhoods and is actually proven to reduce tagging.
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#6 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 19 October 2009 - 09:04 AM

Langford has reached an out-of-court restitution agreement with a tagger, in the $ thousands. They are proceeding to trial with another. Both of these clowns were found guilty criminally.

#7 hoi polloi

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Posted 19 October 2009 - 09:22 AM

i miss the Trackside Gallery. there were such a variety of styles, well done. the beige wall is beyond ugly and the approved sponsored art above street level needs some maintenance.

#8 Caramia

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Posted 19 October 2009 - 10:58 AM

So do I. I get why building owners don't want graffiti - most of it is crap. But as the derelict urban spaces disappeared so did most of the GOOD graffiti, and in my opinion our urban landscape is poorer for it. Unfortunately, there's no artistic merit clause that would allow some buildings to keep their graffs. If Banksy himself decorated a wall in Victoria it would be painted over 24 hours later by these philistines. At least at Trackside Gallery there was a place for artists to work legally and those of us who appreciate this form could go and see it without sneaking into the few remaining dark alleys and abandoned buildings.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

#9 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 19 October 2009 - 01:05 PM

LANGFORD REPORTS PROGRESS IN GRAFFITI BATTLE

http://www.cfax1070....hp?newsId=10984

Oct 19, 2009

A PROLIFIC GRAFFITTI VANDAL HAS AGREED TO MAKE RESTITUTION TO THE CITY OF LANGFORD, IN THE AMOUNT OF MORE THAN SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS.


[...]

#10 Marilyn

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 04:33 AM



Even Mother Nature hates graffiti.
Morning sun shining on the windows of The Yates Centre on the other side of the parking lot created reflections which projected onto this wall.
This is the west wall of Sugar.

#11 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 05:48 AM

The Writing is on the Wall
Posted By: Anna Kemp
10/14/2009 8:00 AM


http://www.mondaymag...-is-on-the-wall

Anti-Graffiti Symposium comes to Victoria

Graffiti is everywhere. All over Victoria, and in cities and towns around the world, blank walls have become covered with the colourful graphics of taggers. And wherever there are taggers—named for their stylized signatures known as tags—someone has the job of removing their work.


[...]

#12 Holden West

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 06:43 AM

I wonder how the Opus art store on Herald St. would feel if you tagged their building with their specialist graffiti spray paint.
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#13 jklymak

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 06:58 AM

If Banksy himself decorated a wall in Victoria it would be painted over 24 hours later by these philistines.


Unfortunately, many of these taggers think they are Bansky. If Bansky defaces^H^H^H^H^H decorates your property without your permission he is just as guilty as some punk ass kid, and should expect his "work" to be painted over. Sorry, but its hard to believe that anyone could consider destroying someone else's property an acceptable means of expression. It certainly is an act of hubris unilaterally deciding that how you decorate a wall is better than what the owner of the wall was willing to put there.

#14 Caramia

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 08:35 AM

It has gone beyond that though. For instance, take the alley behind the Duck building - now gated. Once it was a stunning mural that was reworked weekly. While it wasn't the safest alley ever, it was certainly made safer by the group of graffiti artists who used it as a canvas. I was in a studio above the alley at the time, and I recall very friendly relations between Michael Williams (the building owner,) the tenants, and the artists. We made requests (some might remember the Vaughn Bode tribute wall, or the Wizard of Oz wall made to complement the short lived "Dorothy's Diner" at the alley entrance. Sometimes donations were even gathered among the tenants for paint.

However, the graffiti haters got their new bylaws, and the happy relationship was severed. By the time I started managing the property, after Michael Williams death, we had 24 hours to destroy each new work or the City got on our backs. Of course this led to a serious decline in our relationship with the artists, and eventually the packed up and left. The shitty little taggers swarmed into the vacuum leaving their scrawled obscenities where once there were beautiful murals. With no weekly crews in the alley at night painting, drug use in that alley rose, and eventually we had no choice but to gate it for safety's sake.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have penalties but we've gone too far in the other direction. We've created a situation where property owners are forced to paint over murals even if they like them, unless they want to enter a formal relationship with the artists and go through the "signage" red tape which in this city is formidable. Simply allowing it to happen, and enjoying the results is off the table. And in those situations, our regulations have become the vandal - removing decoration choice from property owners as surely as graffiti artists do when they paint without permission.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

#15 jklymak

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 09:03 AM

^ OK, I understand you now. Yes, certainly someone should not be forced to sanitize art on their building, particularly if it is in an alley.

#16 Marilyn

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 09:06 AM

Some of the legal murals in Victoria are pretty bad too. The one on the side of the building on Langley opposite Murchie's back door, is an example of an excellent mural but few others can match it.

#17 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 09:13 AM

I'm not saying we shouldn't have penalties but we've gone too far in the other direction. We've created a situation where property owners are forced to paint over murals even if they like them, unless they want to enter a formal relationship with the artists and go through the "signage" red tape which in this city is formidable. Simply allowing it to happen, and enjoying the results is off the table. And in those situations, our regulations have become the vandal - removing decoration choice from property owners as surely as graffiti artists do when they paint without permission.


What you're saying doesn't make any sense in relation to what's quoted in the Monday Mag article, cited above:

“We have a very simple philosophy,” says Reed. “Graffiti is any writing or painting on a building that’s done without the owner’s permission. Places like Wildfire Bakery, well, that’s permitted and has nothing to do with what we do. We’re dealing with the stuff that’s on the garbage cans, stop signs and bus shelters.”

It does not sound like private property owners have to follow regulations that dictate removing graffiti they have endorsed. They're obliged to remove tags - but aside from the "we need to practice tags before we can be graffiti artists" argument, no one can seriously suggest there's any merit in tagging.

As for the "we need to practice" argument: there are many people in fields that require specialized tools who could also use the argument "we have no canvas/ no instrument/ no computer to practice on." And that doesn't even address the pseudo-oppositional politics of taggers (the anti-private property/ anti-The System stuff), which just increases social resentment of the activity.
When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#18 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 09:15 AM

^ OK, I understand you now. Yes, certainly someone should not be forced to sanitize art on their building, particularly if it is in an alley.

They will be expected to sanitize it if it's just random tagging. But I'm curious to see the regulation that tells owners of Wildfire Bakery or of the tatoo place at Cook & Meares that they have to paint their murals over.
When you buy a game, you buy the rules. Play happens in the space between the rules.

#19 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 09:56 AM

They will be expected to sanitize it if it's just random tagging. But I'm curious to see the regulation that tells owners of Wildfire Bakery or of the tatoo place at Cook & Meares that they have to paint their murals over.


If I'm not mistaken, and Caramia please correct me, some businesses use murals as a bit of an advertisement, where they would not be allowed to use a sign of that size. Two examples come to mind: The self-storage opposite the arena with it's "dog hiding bones" theme, and also Westcoast Appliances with a large mural facing south on Gorge Rd., near Jutland, nearly the same thing as there sign logo design but with no words.

#20 Holden West

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Posted 20 October 2009 - 10:01 AM

Yeah, I don't understand that either. The anti-graf bylaw is firm in order to motivate lazy and careless landlords into taking care of the unsightly tags on their buildings. It doesn't affect an owner that legitimately wants a mural on his building.

And in no way is crude tagging some sort of apprenticeship into mural painting. That's like saying mugging is an entry-level job on the way to becoming an investment banker. Oh, wait, actually it kinda is.
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

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