It’s been a few weeks since our last Press Mill, but there’s been a fair bit of news across both Oz and NZ in the past few weeks, so here’s our informal wrap up of what’s been going on in the mainstream media in terms of street art, and its ilk, across Australia and NZ.
Most of the recent media attention has been focused on the New South Wales governments new anti-graffiti legislation, and its been overwhelmingly a sad read this week through a slush pile of relatively crap, sensationalist and biased articles. It’s unfortunate also, that with the introduction of these new laws, several councils have also removed their support or get rid of several legal walls across NSW – and this, to us here, just defies all logic. We guess, according to the NSW government, that unless its a semi abstract pastel coloured painting with the image of a beach in the background, hanging in some gallery cluttered with zimmer framed connoisseurs, it just mustn’t be art.
- Links to news articles on the new NSW laws are here, and to be honest, this will all depress you. Young artists now face criminal court, increased fines, and can be stripped of a drivers license – wtf? Graff artist JONES from Lismore has good words about it all in the Northern Star … this is a pretty balanced article from the SMH on opinion points on both sides, nice.
- Apparently, with no statistics or any real research research, the CEO for “Keep Australia Beautiful” has stated that legal graffiti walls –increase- the rate of illegal graffiti and he also wants to get rid of them, despite clear statistics from local councils across Australia that have shown that legal walls actually decrease it … umm, sorry Peter McLean – wot?
- Lets just get the depressing news out of the way, right? In Adelaide, St Peters council just buffed over a legal wall that had been done by eight different artists on the side of the Bond Gallery – don’t these fool councils actually check these things first?
- The anti-art keeps on rolling, and expect to see lots of beautiful “Council Grey” adorning the walls of Yarra Ranges … again, if there were murals on these walls, what need would there be to buff them? This is coupled with the awesome talents of the Warner Awareness Education Group who are going around to local schools teaching kids the valuable “art is a crime” lesson.
- Oh look, we finally got around to some nice news – we love Yarn Bombing, and there is a bunch of it going on in the Clarence Valley! Well done Grafton Regional Gallery on supporting it all.
- Everyone in Brisbane should vote for Ray Smith in the upcoming mayoral race, it sounds like this guy actually has a clue about the arts, and wants to actually put money and some consideration into laneway projects for street art in Brisvegas – good luck, Ray.
- Someones been going around painting dumped mattresses around the Sunshine Coast – they look pretty cool! Grand idea.
- We saw C.O.P. Magazine a few months ago, and theres an article in the Mt Druitt Standard featuring Jo Alvarez. If you don’t know what C.O.P. is, its a magazine aimed at and that covers, female street and graffiti artists across the globe – and its really cool.
- Here’s a great article on this years Northern Exposure festival in Northcote next week, which this year has a very specific street art theme with its Small Works Small Spaces component. Dope.
- Why is it that when mainstream media sees something creative out on the streets that’s a little different, they always invoke the B word? Regardless, this sounds like it was a pretty cool idea that happened up in Brisbane last week.
- NZ artists are up and supporting Amnesty International this week – I think we’ll post an event about this one shortly!
- Lots of support for kiwi artist Eno in the last few weeks, after his run ins with authorities and the media after his attempts at beautifying his city. Much respect, bro.
- Theres a cool article up today with Frank Liew from Qubic & Hypebeast up at the NZ Herald – a great guy doing great things for creatives. Heres ten of his favourite things.
- George Shaw and Anne Rush are pushing for more public art to be done in Nelson in the leadup to the Rugby World Cup – such a great idea, and its so good to see people championing these kinds of things. Shaw is also the organiser of the Oi You Urban Art Project, that we’ll be covering later down the track …
Okay, that’s enough information overload for now, we’ve probably fulfilled our drabagoogle quota for the week – hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks media wrap up!
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