An Artful Crime

The week before last Annie and I were down in Melbourne to celebrate our 3 year anniversary. One of our traditions when travelling is to take in walking tours of the city. Walking around allows you to see a city ‘from the ground up’ so to speak, and the tour often teaches you interesting things you could never learn from a guidebook.

And so when we found a tour called the “Melbourne Graffiti Art-Street Culture-Bar Tour” from a group calling themselves “We Make Stuff Good” we thought we were onto a winner for sure!

Sadly, when we got to Melbourne and called “We Make Stuff Good” (don’t you just love that name?) we were told that the tour was cancelled for the weekend - bummer! - but would we be interested in “a live graffiti-and-street-art-creation festival and sketch art class?” Would we be interested? You betcha we would! A graffiti art class and a live festival? That sounded like a date right up our alley (Melbournian pun intended).

The festival was put on by “Don’t Ban The Can” a group dedicated to promoting Melbourne’s graffiti scene. Hold up… promoting? Yup. Apparently the deal is that Melbourne’s smarter politicians decided to greatly raise penalties for graffiti and ban the sale of spray cans - so this group is fighting back by promoting graffiti as art.

Is graffiti a crime or an art form? Or both? I don’t have an answer to that. It’s a debate that has been raging almost as long as historians have been taking note of what’s happening in the world. As you can see from some of the pictures of the festival there is no doubting that some of these guys and gals have serious artistic talent. On the other hand, MelbourneGraffiti.com - the main site promoting graffiti in Melbourne - allows you to download high resolution PDF outlines of the various types of train carriages used in Melbourne. I assume to practice your ‘art’ before you head to the local station?

Let’s split the difference and call it an artistic crime.

It’s also a crime of lovers - which is befitting a date. Graffiti has been a form of expression for romantics for many years. Indeed Wikipedia quotes a certain “Cil” from a certain town of Pompeii in 1284 who wrote on a wall (Of course - Cil wrote it in Latin, but I though the translated version would be more useful to you):

Whoever loves, go to hell. I want to break Venus’s ribs with a club and deform her hips. If she can break my tender heart why can’t I hit her over the head?

Obviously the poor fellow needed a few dating tips! Or he might have on back the lucky lady… that is if his town wasn’t covered in 15 foot of ash the next day. Talk about a bad week.

As to those dating tips, I’d have to say that art classes - like walking tours - always make for a good date. They allow you to be a little bit creative with your lucky lady, to produce something she can take home - all while working on a shared activity and often consuming a little dutch courage at the same time. A simple formula for dating success. Just avoid the volcanoes.

(If you’re looking for a local Sydney art class, try Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School from the Date Deck!)

Posted by tomorrow's date() on 10/05