Pain(t) Spotting: Cheers to the Photographers that made 2014

There will be no images in this post. This is a written tribute to the spotters. That unique pack that are religiously devoted to the documentation of what is happening in street art in Melbourne, this year. You fuckers call us paint spotters. Pfffff.

Us 'paint spotters' will know the following questions well and will ask ourselves daily:

1. Am I an artist?

2. Am I just a collector of names, images and knowledge?

3. Am I a hobbyist?

4. Do I take the shot so people see the work, or so that they see me?

I don't doubt many of us street art photographers are artists who have chosen to stick with the medium of photography. Yet frequently we are derided. Most insultingly, we are often viewed as fans, when in reality, we can be, and often are, the greatest wing-man an artist could hope for.

I want to take my hat off to a special few who I admire greatly in my own little hyper local world.

1. David Russell - energetic, open, generous and collaborative. He is amazing. What he doesn't know about the inner workings of a camera is not worth knowing.

2. Dean Sunshine - he is so easy to be in love with. Not like that, just in terms of wishing you could bottle a piece of him for yourself.

3. All those shapes - how does one person know so much about so many?

4. Arty Graffarti - in the Graff world, he is the equivalent of All Those Shapes.

The four people above, in my opinion, are shaping this scene more influentially than I think anyone gives them credit for. 

Power Grouse

Yes, grouse. There is no other way to describe walking through a massive space full of people doing art. I mean the painters and the spotters, too.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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All things said

Melbourne has a bleeding heart. Some are raging and others pleading for peace. These are the only words that are my own. Below, I have taken beautiful, poignant, thoughtful and honest words exchanged over 2 Fb posts (David Russell and Mel Jewell), over 24 hours. I've dissected, spliced, rearranged and abbreviated. In doing so I hope to have captured the essence of this.

Part 1: Justification

We didn't make it man we blew it
We used to level public space
With non commercial art
All that is gone for a few grants

Hegemonic art is gentrificiation
It's mainstream dictating aesthetics
When they make pretty backdrops of wealth
Don't be surprised that writers fuck shit up

Part 2 - Reaction

This post-structural posturing
This shit is naval gazing

Don't speak for the scene
You media show pony

You've jumped the shark
You are a parody of yourself
Your media buddies make it news
But it's been dead for years

Clap clap for provoking
The contextual debate
Opinion doesn't make you right
And this critique is personal

Part 3 - Opinion

Haters gonna hate
Wankers gonna wank
Painters gonna paint
Tags are fuckin' sick

The line between piss take and art
It isn't as blurry as you might think
This is piss take made personal
No need to dissect it to see that

Paint whatever you want man
But pick up a weapon, expect trouble
I wish someone would paint over it
Scratch out Murals and write Toys

Part 3: Response

Your target isn't on the shooting range
This isn't an art vs graffiti gudgewank
There is no news on street art vs graff
Lush has been saying the same for years
(only better)

Part 4: Reason

Does the source matter if the point is relevant?
People stroke street arts' fast disappearing balls
There's no critique just "that's painted really well"
Boring and un-inventive - the death of street art

This technical obsession is a curse

Technically adept, thematically empty

Just middle class white hipster kids
With over romanticised notions

Part 5: Right of Reply

7 words on a wall
And everybody shits their pants
It is such a strange time
For all the keyboard fury
This is just paint on a wall

Part 6: Compassion

You must feel heavily misunderstood

I never claimed to be anything I wasn't
I'm sorry for the rift between us

Who said art has to be pidgeon holed?

If you are not pissing on someone for doing murals
If you do no harm we can be friends

Part 6: Learning

Murals, street art and graff
Why cant we have it all?
Celebrate diverse contributions

Graffiti is bigger than ever
There is just another group
Who are also painting walls

Part 7: Love

All things said, fair points
We are in this together
A united collaboration

It's all paint on walls
Some of it I like
Some of it I don't

I love graffiti
I love street art
The former
Informs the latter

Legal or illegal
It's all semantics
What we all love,
That is art

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