Perth graffiti – vandalism or art?

Perth graffiti (near Helvetica, just off Howard St)

Graffiti. The word evokes lots of mixed emotions. Some think it gives a city personality, while for others it’s defacement.

Typical Roman street. Photo by portadown.50megs.com

According to Graffiti.org, there are three types of graffiti – vandalism, gang and art. The first two are basically just a way for punks to show that their ugly scrawlings are much more important than a building, bus window or wall. I can’t think of any city with a worse graffiti problem than Rome, where even monuments are regularly tagged with political assertions, vulgarities or simply names. It’s so rampant that it seems Rome has given up on trying to clean the city up. And why would they, when it would just get retagged the next day?

Perth has its fair share of graffiti, but luckily it’s of the third variety. It’s artwork. Some of my favourite street art in Perth is in an alleyway off of Howard Street (which I stumbled upon when searching vainly for Helvetica).

Northbridge is home to lots of amazing urban art as well. My favourite is a building on the corner of Roe and Milligan Street that has been completely transformed by the thirteen WA artists who painted it. Watch this short video showing the building’s transformation.

But it’s not all good. Leave it to Worst of Perth to discover some heinous street art. They describe it as being “a befuddling mural… depicting an angel and a demon engaged in battle upon fanged steeds.” Pretty accurate. And very bad.

Perhaps the rarity of vandalism graffiti in Perth is thanks to Western Australia’s strict graffiti laws. Vandals face two years in jail or a $24,000 fine, according to the new law passed on 1 January 2010. Furthermore, any retailer who sells spray cans or large non-water soluble marker pens to anyone under the age of 18 are given a $6,000 fine.

Now if only Rome would do the same…