Chris Tamm - Curator
May's Lane Gallery, Sydney

Ex-a-sketch Street Art Workshop
Sunday Funday program
Museum lawns, North Terrace
7 Oct 2007, 2 - 4pm

I'm Seein' Robots
Josh2000
Area 101
Shop 3, Ebenezer Pl.
28 Sep - 5 Oct 2007

Street art, graffiti, vandalism, and defacement - it goes by many different names but, from any perspective, it sounds dubious at best. And so this 'art form' that, to some, is an alternative outlet for the arts, has become little more than an expensive nuisance to many of our law-abiding citizens.

But have graffiti's negative connotations been overshot? These days, street art legends such as Banksy have become household names (if only in art-student share houses). Now, more than ever, it seems that there are ripples crossing the aerosol oceans onto our humble Adelaide shores. Since the first political graffito was made, officially, on the ancient walls of Pompeii, the art of the street savant has become a [semi] permanent fixture on public surfaces across the world.

Urban art, and its cousins, guerilla art, adbusting, culture jamming, activism and subversion, can be seen as a platform for public awareness and street reclamation. For others, it can also be seen as little removed from dog piss on a fire hydrant. Perhaps this is where the distinction lies between street art and tagging. In general, however, street art can most often be defined by its recontextualisation of visual art techniques into a functioning form for illicit, public places. Often intertwined with rap, hip-hop and punk culture, graffiti can also be seen as inextricably linked with developments in music, socio-economic fronts and anti-establishment movements.

From the die-hard efforts of the New York street scene to the artistic fame of such gallery heavyweights as Jean-Michel Basquiat, graffiti and urban art can be said to have much to answer for.

On local fronts, street art seems to have become a popular pastime. From free-form aerosol works to stencils, stickers, paste-ups and projections, the contemporary world of street art seems to contain as many niches as the realm of fine art itself. It is therefore no longer easy to tell a street artist simply by a smudge of paint on the index finger and a faint fragrance of au-de-aerosol. However, weekly Ex-a-sketch nights at the Exeter Hotel, Rundle Street, provide an open playing ground for artists and appreciators to share their wares, thoughts, and flickr.com addresses.

Through this exchange I had the recent fortune of catching up with ex-Adelaide boy, Chris Tamm. With several degrees under his belt (think Philosophy, Archaeology, Art History, and Visual Arts honours), and a comfy curators seat in street-side Sydney, Tamm has earned the reputation of street art sage. But is the term 'street art' simply a means of glorifying vandalism?

"For plenty of street artists," Tamm writes, "it is not art - it is vandalism." However, there is no denying street art's success as a medium for political campaigning, activism, social reform, and democratic artistic dialogue. Moreover, "street art lets you self-publish your work whenever you want... even if you do have an art education the street is cheap and low risk compared to expensive galleries which only help a small sector of artists."

Despite the ability of public presentation and artistic merit, however, the future for street artists often remains (except, of course, for the mounting chances of doing time) in the dark. For regular and visiting artists to ex-a-sketch, however, there are new dialogues and debates forming between the issues and ideas of street and fine art. According to instigator Sighmon "ex-a-sketch was created to be a friendly place for arts to meet off the street, to share their drawings and style, inspire each other and plan collaboration projects." So far, these collaborations have included the environmentally-friendly ex-a-sketch zine project, as well as the disposable installation Wall Of Boxes in the city's east end. The ex-a-sketch crew will be taking the word to the kids with the Sunday Funday Street Art Workshop, to be held Sun 7 Oct on the Museum Lawns, North Terrace.

For Chris Tamm, the future of street art seems indefatigable. The "world-wide wall scrawl," in his words, "is a medium in its own right, like print or television." For Sydney-siders looking for an alternative to the conventional gallery space, Tamm's May's Lane street gallery is a seemingly unending source of new art talent. As Australia's premier curated street art space, with commissioned artists taking to street and gallery settings, the May's Project has been a strong innovation in developing an understanding between street artists, the community and the law.

However, Tamm admits that "a lot of the best art in the CBD of Melbourne is by ex-Adelaide (and current Adelaide) artists... I think people in Adelaide like art and are well educated."

Lauren Sutter

Street veteran Josh2000 will be exhibiting new, gallery based works in his solo show 'I'm Seein' Robots' at Area 101 next week.

For information on ex-a-sketch, visit www.flickr.com/groups/church-on-fire

For information on Chris Tamm and May's Project, visit www.mays.org.au

For information on Josh2000, visit www.myspace.com/j2ski



Image: Wall of Boxes collaborative project, Adelaide, 2005.

Image courtesy Witness_1