Ballarat graffiti scene booming: call to devote space to urban art

Graffiti artists say Ballarat’s tagging problem would almost disappear if the City of Ballarat provided public areas devoted to urban art.The local artists, known only by their tag-names CAX and TYME, told The Courier the city’s graffiti scene was booming and revealed parts of the hidden street culture which loosely governs tagging in Ballarat.The pair, who recently painted a design on the wall of the Skipton Street Fish Shop, say “legal walls” like the one they’ve just finished are necessary to reduce tags across the city.“The whole idea of graffiti is to get your name out there – so if you have legal walls, you don’t have to run around putting little squiggles all over the place,” TYME said.“You don’t get the opportunity to paint legally so you’ve got to do it illegally – there’s no other options.”The owner of Skipton Street Fish Shop, who organised the men to paint the wall, praised their work by saying there “should be more of it” in Ballarat.More than 80 spray-cans of paint and about 20 hours of work were needed to complete the design, which the artists hope will inspire other business owners to offer up their walls to local street artists.Having both been in trouble with the law for tagging, the men say authorities needed to try harder to understand graffiti culture.“You fall under the term ‘vandals’, so people automatically assume you’re breaking windows and all that sort of thing,” CAX said.“But that’s not the case at all – there’s definitely rules that we all follow.”Those “rules”, which the men say are known to almost all taggers, include a directive to avoid “hitting” cemeteries, churches and war memorials.“We don’t do cars, houses and we try to avoid hitting heritage-listed stuff,” CAX said.“There’s always exceptions to the rule – but it’s rare.”There are also rules for tagging on or near other people’s tags and a blanket restriction on the biggest sin of all – impersonating someone’s work by using their tag.“A lot of times there is an unwritten code ... if you’re going to tag over somebody, you have to do something better,” TYME said.“Biting (copying a tag) is very much frowned upon.”The pair suggest several areas in Ballarat could be transformed by urban art, including lane ways at the Bridge Mall and various concrete drains across the city.Ballarat City Councillor and chair of the city’s public art advisory committee, Des Hudson, said the door was not shut on parts of Ballarat becoming urban art spaces.“I think it’s worth exploring appropriate locations,” he said.