Edmonton Journal
Saturday, April 9, 2005
Page: D6
Section: Ed
Byline: Olivia Cheng
Source: The Edmonton Journal

Hidden from view inside a Whyte Avenue stairwell, "aerosol artist" Mike Hume shakes a can of black spray paint and eyes the blank wall on which he's about to make his mark.

Meanwhile, somewhere downtown, a maintenance man is brandishing his own can of paint, but for entirely different reasons -- to erase the flux of foul language and obscene drawings defacing local buildings and businesses.

Such is the dichotomy of graffiti.

Done well, and seen through the right eyes, it's the purest of art-forms. Done distastefully, and seen through the eyes of property owners or civic officials, it's vandalism. As such, its perpetrators can be charged with mischief under the Criminal Code.

Hume isn't your typical punk with a vendetta to vandalize. The 27-year-old is actually decorating the walls surrounding Homegrown Soulshack, his hip-hop clothing store, barbershop and "aerosol art" supply centre. In fact, his walls are a constant work-in-progress -- several times a year, he runs a roller over what's there, giving himself and other like-minded artists a new "canvas" for their creations.

Hume believes where there's a wall, there's a way. What he'd like to see is a designated area for aerosol artists -- not your typical taggers and bombers -- to express themselves without the fear of legal backlash.

"The word graffiti definitely carries a negative connotation," he says. "Just by changing the wording of it, you'd be amazed at how it changes peoples initial responses when you're talking about breaking down that initial barrier."

In his travels, local photographer Ted Kerr gained a new appreciation for the artistry and political insights illustrated in the impromptu messages. Kerr spent months travelling Canada, Europe, Asia and India and returned with rolls of film jammed with graffiti.

"What's the difference if art is on a brick wall in downtown Edmonton or if it's hanging at the Tate (Modern gallery) in London? The difference is perception, that's all," says the 26-year-old who is showcasing his work at the southside Sugar Bowl until the end of the month.

"Graffiti is a form of expression. It pushes us and drives us to look at the world differently. It turns the world into a real-time art gallery."

In fact, one of Kerr's most powerful photos captures a Spanish piece created in response to the terrorist bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004. Beneath the blood-red image of an anguished man are the words: "No more victims, no more lies."

Kerr recalls the emotion he felt watching the art take form in front of him. "Literally by one o'clock in the afternoon there were graffiti artists out there changing the fabric of the city," he recalls. "Their heart was being poured out into the walls."

This is the kind of artistry Hume dreams of encouraging in E-town by transforming the alleyways of Whyte Avenue into a designated venue for graffitists to showcase their skills. "People right off the bat are going to be like, 'Well that's ugly, it's going to make the neighbourhood look disgusting'," laughs Hume. "But they're not realizing that this is a very valid creative outlet. It's never going to stop so you may as well provide some kind of outlet where you say, 'Okay, this is a place where we're going to allow you guys to do this.'"

Not surprisingly, considering the controversy surrounding the craft, Hume's vision is getting mixed reviews.

Shirley Lowe, executive director of the Old Strathcona Business Association, says the idea is a good one but it's unlikely to happen. "Public art projects always require funding and organization," she points out. "Right now we just don't have that kind of funding."

Also, while Lowe admits some graffiti artists "are very talented" she dismisses most of their handiwork as nothing more than "disrespectful and costly vandalism."

The Edmonton Police Service's graffiti expert is a little more blunt.

"It will never work,' says Const. Dave Woudstra, whose job entails analysing the cryptic messages embedded in graffiti, and tracking down the taggers who plague the property of others.

"The more you give a lot of these kids, the more they take. From talking to these kids myself they feel they own public buildings so they're allowed to deface them."

Even U of A professor Michael

O'Driscoll, who is fascinated by the whole graffiti subculture and its "politics of language and art", has his doubts about a designated area for aerosol artists to do their work.

Serious aerosol artists follow a code to "stay away from churches, schools, and small business owners" but he adds, "there are a lot of wannabe graffiti artists out there who are little more than vandals."

Another factor working against Hume's idea is the loss of the adrenaline rush -- the thrill, if you will -- of painting without permission."Working on free walls is not the full realization of what graffiti is all about," says O'Driscoll. "For some of them it's the thrill of working illegally, and the politics of transgressing."

With the cost of cleaning up after Edmonton's graffiti culture already creeping up to around $5 million a year -- and with at least one city councillor advocating penalties for businesses that don't get rid of the mess -- Woudstra is leery of seeing anything that could actually generate more unwelcome markings.

"The guys that just do the basic tags, they can't do anything on top of these murals so they have to tag somewhere (else)," he explains. "They'll hit buses, bus shelters, cars, windows, buildings, doors and as a result this whole neighbourhood where this free wall is (will) look like a war zone."

The constable says he'd only consider supporting a legalized venue if Hume signed a contract to keep the surrounding neighbourhood tag-free -- "If he's willing to come out every morning to clean up all the power boxes and buildings that get hit by taggers" -- a term that Hume says he would definitely consider.

No one, he says, will ever "stop somebody from going out at four in the morning with a can of paint they brought at Rona ... .

"But you can create an environment that supports and nurtures legitimate art and frowns upon and discourages the negative. That's all we're trying to do."

ocheng@thejournal.canwest.com
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