Brisbane-below ground

After a conversation at Cold Crush we found out there's only one legal graffiti wall in Brisbane. A tough ask in a city that wants paint and people don't appreciate it. Down in the secluded corners of  the drain in Brisbane a couple of young writers paint in safety "its not worth the risk painting the streets." Brisbane's taken a hard-line stance on graffiti. Where the art flourishes in the laneways of Melbourne and even Hobart, Brisbane's culture is different. Freeways are rarely painted, here graffiti is replaced by bland landscape murals that sit as street art defence mechanism. But go below ground and with space time and imagination artwork flourishes. Nearby the legal wall another drain, painted wall to wall top to bottom. Piecing in peace, few people venture this far making it a safer place. Back at the legal wall a council worker pulls up armed with a tablet for a database and roller to buff paint that latest tag. That's the no tolerance approach to the surrounding walls in a city that tries to keep a lid on it despite it bursting at the seams.  

 

De-Preston

Legal wall on a main road I've already forgotten exactly where it was (somewhere close to Preston). Radiating with style, flow and colour. Gram  (bottom left) is one of those freak of nature graffiti writers with a hand style that would rival some of Melbourne's best. This work breaks up the monotone landscape of a harsh, artificial suburb. 

Residential piece

Opposite the Mordialloc High School lies this legal piece. This is a well executed piece with a complex letter-form. It incorporates a stylized character which is cheekily admiring the piece. Nice use of a wide range of colours including non traditional fill of pink and light blue. 

Mordialloc

Legal Eagle

Over the fence of an vacant block of land I see this..... These writers particularly MSA (Melbourne Suicidal Artists) and WD (Wanted Dead) know how to rock it with style. What a pity this piece of "legal" art can't get more publicity in a higher profile space. Can we still not handle aerosol art in public? 

Greensborough Graffiti etiquette

A difficult conundrum for some artists and for others its blatantly clear. Legal pieces are often looked down upon by the graffiti community. Some artists only paint legals, whilst others have solely maintained their anonymous illegal identity. Illegal graffiti is raw, organic and fast paced in nature. Painting legal graffiti can be relaxed in comparison.    

 Some legal graffiti is high quality artwork. This sort of art is produced predominantly by graffitist's with a long-term experience on the streets. However there is some poor examples like this piece below. Its been targeted probably because it was a past popular graffiti spot and the legal piece is basic and lacks style and personality.

Melbourne's SDM crew

SDM was seen as one of the main driving forces in Melbourne’s scene in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s. Formed in the late 1980′s by Jumble and some of his mates from Port Melbourne, then joined by Dscreet, Trim and Method the crew really picked up the pace. Eventually Dvate, Dabs, Askem, Ethics, Urge, Iree, Wei2, Rcor and Aeon became part of the line up around 1999-2000 and then Rase, Myla, Sup, Surge, Ninja, Mercy, Tizer and Shucks got on board. 

Extract from Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thesdmcrew/info

Just this year they painted Upper Ferntree Gully CFA wall which backs onto the Railway line. Unfortunately on one hand you see the death of a popular outer suburb Belgrave line wall which had the likes of PBP pieces. When they repainted the wall it received positive, publicity through local paper.

http://ferntreegully.starcommunity.com.au/mail/2014-06-17/hot-spot-is-out-of-the-shadows/

 Several crews in Melbourne that do so called "legal" works go back and paint the area nearby "illegally." This sticker is just another way of letting writers know who's about.