ethics of painting over graffiti?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Not sure if this should go here, or in Cafe Society…

I bought a small commercial building recently, in a Melbourne (Australia) suburb of Fitzroy. It’s covered in graffiti. Some of it is tags - just scrawls of nicknames of people done in traditional tagging style. But there are several large pieces there, words that I cannot really make out.

I happen to work in (and own) the building next door, and have a good view of the new building I bought, and I saw the guys doing the larger pieces - during daytime, a six pack of beers, four guys, maybe three hours. The bricks were painted a dull grey (looks like the previous owners painted over graffiti many times in the past).

The building where I work is a very nicely restored bluestone church from the 1850’s. We have never been tagged in the two years we’ve been here, for some reason (not that I am arguing).

Graffiti is rampant around here on dis-used buildings (and the one I bought LOOKS dis used, but it was not). Fitzroy was a very low-rent inner burb, but now it’s a pretty trendy place to be, a big hang out for creative types, and alt stores and stuff. Very busy, lots people come here to look at the people with weird hair cuts, dine at excellent cafes, and so on forth. I think most cities have a place like this…?

Also around here, there are groups of people who paint fantastic prices on walls, usually fantasy based scenes, that take six guys a week to do. I’d never paint over one of them (cos they are ace), but the stuff on my building is just words, not a scene.

Anyway, I want to clean up this building I bought - it’s a four bedroom cottage, prolly circa 1880, and would look great sandblasted back to red brick and bluestone window frames and plinth.

I’d prolly coat the bricks in that anti-graffiti paint (that apparently works well) if it happenned again, and keep the place clean and lived-in, which in my experience helps stop vandalism.

Soooooo my longwinded question is, am I going to piss off these kids by sandblasting it?

2

Um, wow, bluestone church in Fitzroy. I might have to drop in one day and say hi :slight_smile:

If it’s just tags, then I wouldn’t say you’ll piss them off, but as they have tagged it, they’re just as likely to continue to tag it I would expect.

However, anti-graffiti paint should make it tougher for them in the long run as long as you are willing to keep cleaning it off.

A case of who has the stronger will.

3

Of course you are going to piss them off. But for crying out loud, an 1880 era brick building? You gotta do what you gotta do. Sand blast it without a hint of regret, after all, you own the building. Granted, if a 21st century Michaelangelo was creating some masterpiece for the ages, I’d have my doubts.

You’ll probably take some modicum of grief for removing their “art”, but I doubt the larger community would have any problems with it. Just be glad that you aren’t in L.A. where people shoot each other for tagging over somebody else’s “art” (a lot of tagging is gang related). Restore that sucker to it’s original brickwork and let the graffiti artists find dumpier and more hospitable terrain.

By the way, congratulations on your business success. I’m envious in more ways than one.

4

What if you maintained a nice lawn, and someone decided to force their “art” on you by using a grass killing chemical to burn their tag into your lawn? How is that different than tagging your wall?

It’s your building, and you’re under no obligation to provide a canvas for their work. “Free expression” in a society does not mean one is obligated to provide a medium and unlimited access for everyone to express themselves.

5

It the graffiti returns, you might try this deterrent tactic - a community centre near where I live was the target of constant vandalism and was a popular hangout for gangs of delinquent youths - they installed a few outdoor speakers (in vandal-proof metal housings out of easy reach) and played classical music through them all day and night - not loud enough to be a disturbance to anyone at all - you can only hear it if you’re standing near the building.
There just isn’t a problem at that location any more - the kids went elsewhere.

6

I don’t know about Australian graffiti writers, but I really don’t think anyone would mind you going over simple tags. However, it seems you like pieces that are well done, it could be a good idea to get some of the more skilled painters to do one on your wall, in my experience pieces like that are almost never touched. You might prefer a normal, clean wall yourself, but if it’s not too much of a compromise for you, you’d make a good impression on a lot of these kids, and you probably wouldn’t ever have to worry about cleaning your walls.

7

Go straight to them. Put up a big sign telling them that you will be sand-blasting and prepping it. Tell them that they are welcome to do their best tagging and finest art.

For 90 days. Then, since you have respected their art, you ask them to respect the work you are going to do on rehabbing the place, and not tag the walls once they are sandblasted.

Might work. Might not. Beats just blasting away their tags and engaging in silent battle.

Cartooniverse

8

Just be sure it is not one of these :eek:

9

Actually, I think this is more suited to IMHO than CS, since you’re not really talking about the quality of the “art.”

Moving from GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

10

Your biggest problem is *probably *not the graffiti.

11

It’s not “art”, it’s vandalism. Destroy it, asap.

12

What he ^ said.

13

Eh. Graffiti is designed to be temporary. I’m sure Banksy is fully aware of that.

14

Love this idea. It probably woudn’t work too well, since taggers will show up long after your “deal” was struck, but I like the idea anyway: Go ahead boys, have at it, and don’t hold back, but it’ll disappear in ninety days. Maybe offer a prize, take a photo of the winning piece, get it framed and have a plaque that explains how it all went down – kind of a talisman against future taggers once you clean the place up.

15

Now, music from 1930, I’m not all that interested in. Music from 2007, very interested. Anything beyond…well, get me on a bus to East Riding!

Graffiti can be designed to be temporary. I’m sure he’d agree with that. It can be worth being permanent, in some cases, can it not? Such as with Free Derry Corner, where the graffiti outlives the building.

16

It won’t work.* Taggers used to respect Murals but no longer, in fact NYC is having a huge porblem with murals as now taggers prefer murals are their “work” is better displayed and it’s harded to clean graffitti off murals.

17

Well, that’s a mural, which is different. If Banksy, and others of his ilk, are painting a commissioned (or not) mural, then it is intended as a semi-permanent work of art. But he’s not doing that, he’s making knowingly transitory artwork. When he first started doing it, most of his stuff would’ve been painted over pretty quickly, I bet, and he would’ve known it and probably still expects it. I wonder if the way he’s become such a phenomenon matters to him at all.

18

A suggestion that might improve the state of your wall without sandblasting:

Make it a “permission wall.” If the people that do graf know they have your permission, you may get larger, more beautiful pieces, and they may last longer.

I know this doesn’t answer your question directly, but I thought I’d offer you an alternative that addresses the ethical side of grafitti in a way that probably won’t provoke retaliation by taggers.

19

True, but she did say that the graffiti wasn’t all over every building, but concentrated on buildngs that looked disused, and that the nicely restored church hasn’t been tagged. So, if the cottage is sandblasted and restored, it might well be skipped by those future taggers, too. And if word on the street is that that building should be left alone, it probably will be largely left alone.

20

Pictures? I can probably tell you if it needs to be kept. Also, nix on the whole gang related thing. Even if it has its roots in marking territory, that was well over 30 years ago. It is now done, mostly, either in groups or by individuals. The groups aren’t gangs, they are a group expressly to do graffiti. With a hierarchy and everything. In some places murals are respected, but they largely aren’t anymore. If your community has an artsy feel, I say do what everyone above suggested. If the tags aren’t all that good, paint over it. Give people a week, 2 weeks tops, to paint. Then wait.