Speech to BCC Chambers, 28th May 2024

I am speaking to the presentation on Legal Street Art

This is a great initiative to legalise Street Art as it supports a thriving art subculture that usually has a negative perception or stigma. Legalised street art locations provide the opportunity to empower our youth, reduce illegal graffiti and enhance our public spaces.  

One of the three trial locations is at the well known Paddington Skate Park on the corner of Hale and Caxton Streets, in my Ward. This was one of the first ‘street style’ parks built in Brisbane. This Skate Park is extremely popular especially for seasoned skaters - and is a place where urban street culture thrives.

The media have played a negative role in our perception of graffiti and street art, due to the artist often challenging social norms. Local governments like Brisbane City Council have also been active in stigmatising this urban street art culture. The council has been preferring to clean empty walls rather than allowing these assets to be utilised as public space canvases for creative expression. Street art allows people to express themselves and their identity in a peaceful and non-violent way as well as building connections between other artists and our community. 

I know in The Gabba Ward, both, former Councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan and Councillor Trina Massey have been actively supporting urban art on public spaces that would normally attract graffiti, that the council would remove. Creating an endless cycle of energy and resources. The Gabba Ward has been focused on supporting street art murals, especially from youth and first nations, with beautiful work that the community love.

This initiative should be expanded to provide artists with more opportunities and locations around the city. However, it’s very important that we engage with our community at the same time in genuine grassroots community consultation that will help ensure our residents have the opportunity to have a say on how we shape our neighbourhoods. 

While I do support this council initiative,  it also possesses a form of oppression - as no political art is allowed. If someone does create anything that is deemed to be political art, the artist can take a photo and then it must be covered over.  So someone in Brisbane City Council is deciding on what is political or not. For many in this urban street art culture, they recognise that all of life is political. The origins of urban street art is, in fact, found in the expression of ‘Identity’ and ‘branding of a space’. Identity and ‘branding of a space’ is in itself a political expression. 

Despite these restrictions, I do hope that this trial is rolled out widely throughout Brisbane as a rare and positive initiative for our younger residents that supports an important youth-based urban culture.