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Ebony’s on a mission for graffiti

Posted on October 7, 2011

By GRANT MAYNARD

THAT’S the great thing about art, you can literally find it anywhere.

Unlike the days of old, it is no longer hidden away… in a private collection or stuffy gallery.

In fact, art can now be found in many different forms, in many different places, with an increasing number of the latter being public spaces.

The famous ‘Mall’s Balls’ in Adelaide are a great example of open air art that has been taken to the bosom of the community.

It is hard to imagine Rundle Mall without them.

By contrast, Melbourne’s infamous ‘Yellow Peril’ is an example of public art that did not receive the same accolades from the community, and was generally spurned.

So, it will be interesting to see what our community makes of the outdoor artwork created by second year La Trobe University Visual Arts student, Ebony Clark.

In her own words, the graffiti or street art-style artwork is aimed at “helping people in the community understand the difference between art and vandalism.”

“Many people confuse tagging – the writing of a personal, stylised signature – with graffiti or street art,” Ebony, 21, said.

“When tagging, people are just scribbling their name on something, and laying claim to territory… seeing how many times they can do something.”

“That is vandalism. I wanted to create a genuine artwork in spray paint to show the difference.”

But it wasn’t an easy road for Ebony. Just finding someone who would allow her to paint a wall was difficult.

“No-one I approached was willing to let me paint a wall for them,” she said.

“Even after I promised to have it painted over, or cleaned off as soon as the project was over.”

The work she wanted to create was a project for her Bachelor of Visual Arts degree that specified the creation of a large-scale wall drawing, and Ebony wanted to do it in the public domain.

But she was getting nowhere fast getting permission.

“I thought I might have been given a little leeway because it was a school project,” Ebony said.

But the minds of the people she approached were firmly closed on the idea.

Her eventual ‘rescue’ came from an unusual quarter – Mildura’s innovative Aroundagain recycling depot.

Not only did it have wall space, the management and staff there were genuinely enthusiastic about the idea, a grateful Ebony said.

“I wanted to have permission for the work… to be able to work during the day…not work at night on something that would be painted over as soon as it was discovered.

“I believe this is an important wall drawing because graffiti art is still a very controversial topic, especially in Mildura.

“One problem in Mildura is that there isn’t enough permissioned street art in the town for the community to enjoy, and learn to accept.

“Secondly, there is a lot of graffiti in Mildura that is just tagging, and not graffiti at all.

“People hear the word graffiti, and immediately think vandalism.

“I wanted to show that it doesn’t have to be like that.

“Kmart use to have a legal wall for people to create artworks on, and so I thought I would ask and see if I could get permission to use that space.

“Unfortunately they do not allow that wall to be drawn on anymore.

“Even though they liked my preliminary drawing of what I wanted to do, they
believed that if I started doing something on the wall it would encourage others to graffiti the wall.

“I could see the point, but there is already a lot of stuff on the wall including, ironically, a scrawled question that asks: ‘Is this still a legal wall?’

“What I wanted to do was create a public artwork, something for people to enjoy.”

Ebony contends that there should be designated council graffiti walls to allow young artists to develop their skills, and go on to seek opportunities and commissions for more complicated murals.

“With more designated art areas, there will be less, unwanted spray paint art being applied to properties without permission.”

Of her Aroundagain work, Ebony said she chose just the single word ‘believe’ because she believes that a lone word works well for graffiti and looks effective.

“It catches the eye, and gets straight to the point,” she said.

“The word ‘believe’ is something that is positive, and that everyone looking at it can get something out of and/or can take something away from.”

Aroundagain manager, Krister Jonsson agrees, saying Ebony’s art has added “colour and light” to the premises, as well as making people think.

“And there is a nice connection in that her grandfather, George Malic, is one of our most enthusiastic volunteers here,” he said.

Ebony’s artwork might be the first of many atAroundagain if Krister has his way.

We have plenty of wall spaces that could use a little jazzing up, he said.

And, there are fledgling plans for Aroundagain to host an art exhibition later in the year.
Art, Ebony and Krister, argue should not be restricted to more traditional exhibition spaces like galleries.

“There is a little graffiti art in the lane behind The Art Vault,” Ebony said, “but I would like to see more of it around Mildura… and in different places.”

She’s a young lady on a mission!

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