[caption id="attachment_7624" align="alignnone" width="497"]
It's unsightly, but the building did it on purpose.[/caption]
The job a building in Fairview recently did labeling their brand new Vancouver grey garbage bins brought to mind Lululemon founder Chip Wilson paying taggers to tag, oops, paint a mural on the seawall of his Kitsilano property.
I agree there are times when it makes sense to hire a real graffiti tagger. This building would have been better off hiring one to label their building's bins. A tagger would've known when and how to to use a a spray can, or a metallic marker. The result would be as clean and legible as they wanted it to be, unlike the uncontrolled mess the building made.
[caption id="attachment_7621" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Messy and illegible, but not graffiti.
[/caption]
I think what the building did to their shiny new grey bins is far more unsightly than any of the tagging on the surrounding dumpsters and walls -- which I'm not fond of either, but I also understand they're entitled; ownership is the ultimate permission. The neighbours may not like it but the building has the right, up to a point, to do what they want on their own property.
[caption id="attachment_7626" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Purposely obscure, but precise graffiti tag.[/caption]
That brings me back to Chip. When I saw photos, like this one, of the so-called mural that Chip Wilson commissioned taggers to paint on his Kitsilano property's seawall, it just looked like tagging to me -- elaborate to be sure -- but graffiti tagging all the same.
How, I asked myself, is that a mural. Was it a case that when taggers uncap their spray cans for free it's unsightly graffiti, but when they get paid to do the exact same thing, it's a mural, which is a lot closer to saying it's art? -- money talks but sometimes it's hard to understand what it's saying -- when I think about it though, that's what British street artist Banksy has been proving for years.
Chip Wilson is saying that he's encouraging good graffiti to forestall the bad kind. His intent is not to vandalize but to beautify. And while Vancouver seems to be acting the stickler for details like proper permits and such, it seems that Toronto actually make legal allowances for the kind of action Chip has taken.
The City of Toronto's Web site has a page titled Graffiti Art/Art Mural Exemption which describes a review process by which a property owner can have "markings" declared mural art after the fact, and have a Notice of Violation reversed by a Graffiti Panel.
I haven't found a similar provision in Vancouver municipal law. I don't think there is one, but I may not have looked hard enough. Vancouver does have it's Spread the Paint program, which encourages and assists neighbourhoods to come together to paint over offending graffiti. Depending how things turn out,the city of Vancouver might end up encouraging Chip's neighbours to spread some paint. Click the images to enlarge them.
It's unsightly, but the building did it on purpose.[/caption]The job a building in Fairview recently did labeling their brand new Vancouver grey garbage bins brought to mind Lululemon founder Chip Wilson paying taggers to tag, oops, paint a mural on the seawall of his Kitsilano property.
I agree there are times when it makes sense to hire a real graffiti tagger. This building would have been better off hiring one to label their building's bins. A tagger would've known when and how to to use a a spray can, or a metallic marker. The result would be as clean and legible as they wanted it to be, unlike the uncontrolled mess the building made.
[caption id="attachment_7621" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Messy and illegible, but not graffiti.[/caption]
I think what the building did to their shiny new grey bins is far more unsightly than any of the tagging on the surrounding dumpsters and walls -- which I'm not fond of either, but I also understand they're entitled; ownership is the ultimate permission. The neighbours may not like it but the building has the right, up to a point, to do what they want on their own property.
[caption id="attachment_7626" align="alignnone" width="497"]
Purposely obscure, but precise graffiti tag.[/caption]That brings me back to Chip. When I saw photos, like this one, of the so-called mural that Chip Wilson commissioned taggers to paint on his Kitsilano property's seawall, it just looked like tagging to me -- elaborate to be sure -- but graffiti tagging all the same.
How, I asked myself, is that a mural. Was it a case that when taggers uncap their spray cans for free it's unsightly graffiti, but when they get paid to do the exact same thing, it's a mural, which is a lot closer to saying it's art? -- money talks but sometimes it's hard to understand what it's saying -- when I think about it though, that's what British street artist Banksy has been proving for years.
Chip Wilson is saying that he's encouraging good graffiti to forestall the bad kind. His intent is not to vandalize but to beautify. And while Vancouver seems to be acting the stickler for details like proper permits and such, it seems that Toronto actually make legal allowances for the kind of action Chip has taken.
The City of Toronto's Web site has a page titled Graffiti Art/Art Mural Exemption which describes a review process by which a property owner can have "markings" declared mural art after the fact, and have a Notice of Violation reversed by a Graffiti Panel.
"City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 485, Graffiti allows for regularization of an art mural or graffiti art when it is installed with the property owner's permission, adheres to community character and standards, and aesthetically enhances the surface that it covers."
I haven't found a similar provision in Vancouver municipal law. I don't think there is one, but I may not have looked hard enough. Vancouver does have it's Spread the Paint program, which encourages and assists neighbourhoods to come together to paint over offending graffiti. Depending how things turn out,the city of Vancouver might end up encouraging Chip's neighbours to spread some paint. Click the images to enlarge them.
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