Three new legal graffiti sites could brighten public art scene
Believe it or not, Edmonton residents are passionate about public art, which is why three new walls sanctioned for graffiti might be a good fit for a city that can’t stop talking about a pyramid of shiny balls alongside the Quesnell Bridge.
That’s the argument of A.J.A. Louden, a local artist who will be leading workshops at the free walls when they open in September.
Discussions about the Talus Dome art project were “heated” and “passionate” on both sides, Louden said. He notes that free walls are constantly changing with people free to paint over previous works. So if someone doesn’t like a piece, they’ll see something different soon.
“There’s something beautiful and organic about this form of art. Anyone can paint on the wall, you don’t need a committee. Anyone with a spray can and an idea can do it.”
The two-year graffiti free wall project is the work of the Edmonton Arts Council and Capital City Cleanup. The walls, being called open sourced street art zones, will be located on a tennis court building near Edith Rogers Junior High School in Millwoods, at the 63rd Avenue train bridge abutment between 99th Street and Gateway Boulevard, and at the back of the Fountain Tire on Whyte Avenue.
Louden, 27, started off doing graffiti as a kid, getting into a “fair amount of trouble.” He has since become an artist who has exhibited at the Art Gallery of Alberta, who leads arts camps for at-risk teenagers, and does commissioned pieces for the private sector.
He thinks the graffiti free walls will bring more public art to the city and allow artists to showcase their best work in an environment where they’re not rushed to get the job done.
Louden calls the terms graffiti art and street art ambiguous, meaning different things to different people. Any discussion about the free walls seems to lead to a semantic debate.
“We call the site open sourced street art because we want it really clear there’s a distinction between legal and illegal forms of graffiti vandalism,” said Sharon Chapman, graffiti project manager for Capital City Cleanup, the organization charged with promoting enforcement of Edmonton’s anti-graffiti bylaw.
“We’ve come to recognize it’s not necessarily a black and white issue, that we need to adjust. We’re hopeful that artists will embrace this in a positive way and understand that they’ll be the ones who make or break the pilot in that if there’s lots of spillover, it will negatively impact the pilot.”
Capital City Cleanup and the arts council will be responsible for painting over “spillover” graffiti that occurs within 150 metres of the free walls. There will be rules posted at the sites and the organizations will analyze how the pilot is working as the project progresses. Chapman hopes that public meetings will expand support beyond the street art community.
The city already has a graffiti free wall, in the Boyle community where the LRT emerges from its underground stop at the Churchill LRT station.
It is a mesh of overlapping colours and images, some practised and highly stylized, others less refined and intricate. There’s a black-and-white portrait of Bruce Lee that is hard to ignore. The best images detract from the occasional obscene scrawl marked on the concrete canvas.
“I think it could become an amazing way to develop local talent and keep it here and encourage people to apply for private art commissions ... it could become a tourist attraction. Grey walls don’t look better than a beautiful mural,” said Dawn Saunders-Dahl, a public art office for the Edmonton Arts Council.
At this week’s public meetings, Saunders-Dahl will present about the history of graffiti, which she says can be traced to markings in ancient Greek and Mayan temples and promotions for political manifestos painted on walls during the Second World War. That’s a long way from the graffiti that grew with hip-hop culture in New York during the 1970s and 1980s and brought some artists into the world’s most prestigious art galleries.
“It deserves more than being segregated as people being part of gangs, that’s not who is doing the true art work,” said Saunders-Dahl.
The free walls will kickoff with workshops led by Louden and two other established street artists. The goal will be to have murals painted on each of the walls with participation by anyone who wants to join. Saunders-Dahl is hopeful the graffiti free walls will be embraced by street artists in the city.
“They’ve felt that Edmonton has wiped out a generation of artists, which is unfortunate and it’s too bad that that’s how they see it and I hope they’ll come out and support the project.”