Street art off the streets

Downstairs here at Jugglers there is a team of young art students from Queensland College of Art [Griffith University/Southbank Campus]. I have opened the windows and doors of my studio on the second floor to fend off the toxic aerosol fumes. I have realised the impact our sacred graffiti art can have.

There was a sense of recognition about one of the works on the tunnel wall and in conversation with the artist realised she was a successful entrant into this year’s Marie Ellis OAM Prize for Drawing. [ See http://www.jugglers.org.au ] The students are part of a street art course being run by doctoral student Simon DeGroot, and a course experiment for QCA. Jugglers has regular links to schools and tertiary institutions including TUT [That Upstairs Thing] and regular SouthBank TAFE free exhibitions for winners we have offered since 2012. We are planning to expand our connections with TAFE and QCA into something more solid in 2015.

The course that Simon is teaching has had some interesting feedback on Facebook where opinions around a contained street art “course” is vying with the true graffiti writers and the need for lack of supervision and freedom of expression. My view is that anything that exposes artists and art students to a less traditional canvas for mark making is positive. My view also is that anything that cannot be collected and paid for and is ephemeral and transitory has even more impact in a world obsessed with consumption and personal ownership. I fall into this category and so my passion about street art and graffiti is part of my therapy, part of the need to de-clutter.