Graffiti has been causing concern from our local communities, police and now the government in regards to its place in our society as being positive or negative. A lot of people only see Graffiti as the commonly seen ‘Tagging.’ It evokes a stong feeling within us.
Now Tagging is notably common and is an easy way for an artist to mark his ground. The background of this originates from gangs Tagging their neighbourhood territories as a sign to other gangs that this is their property – this has now spilled over into popular culture and our version of this sees graffiti artists randomly Tagging areas they frequent.
WSP Gang Tag - marking territories
The connotation of this of course does not sit comfortably with our community as they see a ‘Tag’ as a sign of a bad area which may have gang activity and violence. This affects us emotionally and as a whole we prejudge this to be dangerous. Those that visit these areas site it as an unsafe area and may avoid it in future; those that live in these areas despise it as they feel it threatens their personal space and degrades their standard of living – an area they have chosen to live.
So it is no surprise that Graffiti Street Art raises controversy in how we feel but it is important that we view this rationally. It is imperative to note that the majority of Graffiti artists that specialise in the basic form of Tagging do not belong to gangs. Thus the connotations of gangs operating in a Graffiti’ed area must be understood to be false and the attached belief of violence and poverty are incorrect.
Word Tagging on Melbourne Streets
It is simply their self expression as an artist. You will commonly see a heavily Tagged street wall in which numerous artists have left there mark or an impossible location (like a bill board or side of a building) with a single stand alone Tag. The artist wants to communicate to other artists that they are here operating in this area or they have been the ‘first’ to mark this area. The artist has no intention to evoke the feelings that Tagging does create.
We need to remember the meaning of Tagging – it is a stylised signature – something that defines that artist and makes them unique. It can be beautiful or crude. It may attract or devalue but overall it is a personal expression. And like all forms of art personal expression is imperative to our culture.
Tagging in the form of images. Artists: Miss Van/ D'Face/ Pez
So as a community we must ask ourselves the question – do we drive it underground or embrace it into our community?
Core TV 1 - Melbourne 
Interesting post, I do think that the main problem here in Melbourne is not that residents and others feel threatened or endangered in the context of graffiti and particularly tagging being an expression of a gang culture. As you stated that kind of context is not a reality in Melbourne, but more at home in L.A. of the 80s and 90s and maybe even today.
I think the problem with tagging in Melbourne is that it disrespects the space it is placed in. Tagging disrespects the fact that we all have a right to express ourselves and not just a few of us- in this case taggers. It is a bit like the case with public libraries, the books are there for all of us, not just for the current user and that means that we should return the object in the same state as found before.
By: VictorBiola on December 9, 2008
at 1:17 pm
An interesting point regarding taggers not trying to cause offence or intimidate, but simply express themselves and relate to one-another.
The core issue here is that graffiti involves using public space, which means the entire public is exposed to it. It is clear from your videos that most respondents are receptive to graffiti, but that tagging is seen as an eyesore.
If taggers want to be respected by the public, they need to respect the publics space or risk being prosecuted for defacing it.
That being said, Taggers should have access to their own space(s), that they can use to interact with others or express themselves.
Enabling personal expression and the arts should be a function of any developed and cultural city.
By: Dylan Nichols on April 18, 2009
at 6:18 pm
where is that grafitti I love it
By: hugo on October 5, 2009
at 4:49 pm