Street Art

I went on a tour of Newtown street art (read: graffiti) last year. I've always loved graffiti (probably more than I should considering that it's sometimes illegal). Here's some stuff I learned.

Types of street art:

• tagging: people's names; newbies do this as an identity thing and to get their name out there; it's quick to do so is often done illegally
• throw ups: people's names as above, but it's the bubblegum writing
• paste ups & stencils: the younger generation are into these; the older tend to look down on them because they require little skill, effort, expense or risk
  
• pieces: can be people's names or pictures or whatever; a piece is something that a bit of work and skill has gone into; it's usually done legally (ie the owner of the wall has given permission) because it takes a lot of time
• bombing/tagging over people's work: totally accepted except if the person has died or it's a memorial for someone who's died or if it's an Aboriginal or iconic (eg the "I have a dream") piece. Interestingly people don't tag churches.
  

You might be familiar with the "I have a dream" mural on King St, Newtown, near the train station. Well it was done by a couple of guys illegally over a couple of nights with a cherry picker (!). The Aboriginal flag was added later. One of the guys, Andrew is now in England doing life because he murdered a guy in a squat. He then came to Australia, became a Christian, and later confessed his crime to his Christian mentor, who said he should go back to England and turn himself in, which he did. Praise God for this changed man! And praise him that now the people on the street art tour will think of this whenever they see the mural.