Artist Temper: Digbeth graffiti has gone too far
Artist claims ‘City of Colours’ project has opened way for vandalism
ART, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. But when it comes to graffiti, nobody has a better eye for what is beautiful than leading Midland artist Temper.
And what he’s seeing right now in parts of Birmingham is not pretty.
Especially in the heart of Digbeth where some of the scrawls are “disgusting”.
He includes the way the front of the famous JFK mosaic has been defaced by self-styled taggers who spray their stylised names with abandon and with no respect for either art or history.
Suburbs like Kings Heath and Moseley are also being increasingly targeted by taggers – and even the 300-year-old stonework of the beautiful St Philip’s Cathedral was vandalised in late December.
Temper’s comments came four years after the inaugural City of Colours festival created huge decorative murals and street art in various parts of Digbeth.
Though organiser Becci Wright estimated the event pulled in around 9,000 people to watch 140 artists at work, too many areas are now falling foul of talentless vandals.
“I warned the City of Colours people four years ago that they were opening a can of worms,” said Temper. “And the trouble is, when you open a can of worms, the worms tend not to stay in the tin.”
His predictions are certainly coming home to roost. By any stretch of the imagination, parts of Digbeth are becoming an unholy mess. Hollywood director Steven Spielberg was there in August 2016 shooting scenes for his forthcoming movie, Ready Player One, set for release on Good Friday. But since then there has been a deterioration in the urban environment. Last year the front of the historic, Grade II-listed Devonshire Works and Zellig building in Digbeth High Street was defaced. Bennie Gray, who had overseen the £10 million renovation of the four-storey building, said he was devastated at what had been done to the frontage.
A year on, the wider area is becoming harder to stomach, too.
No wonder Temper, who has worked with Saatchi & Saatchi and whose sculptures adorn Birming- ham’s Cube building, feels so restless about the issue – even though he has moved his studio from the Jewellery Quarter back to his native Wolverhampton.
A wall besides the River Rea off Floodgate Street is barely visible, thanks to the spray painters.
Back up at street level, some bare stone features, designed to make doorways more attractive back in the day, have also been tagged.
The most dispiriting sight is along River Street, where investors are currently trying to make a go of a vibrant new brewery and tap room called Dig Brew Co.
Such is the scale of ambition here, the bar ought to be a catalyst for regenerating the whole area – especially now that the nearby Custard Factory has new owners keen to help the digital revolution gather speed in this creative quar-ter. But can an area truly reach its potential if it feels so increasingly tatty? On River Street, an entire wall frontage and its many shutters have been scrawled over in a quite random fashion, with the gaudy turquoise colour feeling especially unsuitable for such an industrial neighbourhood. Again, some might find this an acceptable way of someone expressing themselves in what we like to think is our free world. But not Temper, whose charitable contributions to city life range from painting the two highest valued owls in the 2015 Big Hoot pro- ject to creating scenes and endless cobble stones at last year’s House of Fraser Christmas grotto.
Not when a white van has even been daubed and there’s an unholy amount of rubbish on the pavements – including a sofa which had also been tagged.
“Back in the day if I saw some graffiti on a wall promoting something like the National Front, I might have covered that up with something more artistic,” says Temper.
“But I have never painted on a virgin wall.
“I could see that was wrong and that’s when I decided to use my skills to paint on canvas.
“For a decade I was positively promoting the art form and vandalism was minimal.
“If people ordered paints from me, I used to educate them how to use them.
“People were embarrassed to put their tags on the street because of what I was doing.
“I warned the City of Colours people four years ago what would happen if they invited anyone to come and spray paint on the streets. What is happening now will get worse.”
Temper, whose most recent fine art collections have included Cover Versions, Popcorn and Timeless, added: “It’s a vicious circle, once you let it go, and what’s happening now is disgusting.
“Some people need to have their heads knocked together and put in their place.”
I warned the City of Colours people four years ago that they were opening a can of worms Temper