Painting the Town

It was during the eighties that Tony Bective first took notice of Perth’s street art. At the time, Fremantle was “buzzing” with artistic energy, and it was within this infectious atmosphere that Bective stumbled across the work of Sam Abercrombie (now a famous artist living in Portugal) on a wall at Ciccerllo’s Fish Markets. “Basically, what I saw there was the process was involved with an artist putting a painting on a wall,” he remembers, “I saw all the sketching and the outline and the filling-in with colours and concepts. Then, gradually, as the mural developed, I saw how he [Abercrombie] would rub parts of it out and add new notes. So it was very much like seeing an artist thinking and working on a wall. Normally, you just see the final product, but on this wall you could just see the whole process there and I was fascinated by that.”

Since then, Bective has remained ‘on the look out’ for more artistic evidence on the streets of Perth, photographing the most distinct works he comes across during regular walks or cycles through the city. This week, Artrage presents an exhibit of the best in his collection. “I’ve got something like 1200 slides all up and each one is very different,” Bective stresses, “Even the smaller ones, that perhaps use less colour, are still impressive in their intricacy, or just in terms of where the artists have done it. People are using so many mediums now too, it’s being done with spray painting and texture, while others are just writing messages or using stick-on labels. It’s all very intricate and it takes a lot of time and care. It’s not just slaphappy; these artists consciously think about and then have to go out and actually put it somewhere.”

For Bective, though, Perth’s intolerant attitude is stifling the art form. He compares our perception of street art to that which exists in Melbourne and Sydney, where street art is often held up as an urban feature or tourist attraction. “Years ago, Perth’s street art was a bit better, because we could see it and it stayed up longer,” he laments, “It had a bigger presence, whereas nowadays it’s a real race. People put it up and it’s taken down straight away, because it is just seen as defacing. It’s a real war out there, so it’s becoming more tagging or ‘glorified tagging,’ as opposed to art that’s trying to say something about the community or individuals.

“I also guess that that doesn’t exist to the same extent in Perth because we don’t have as much of a social consciousness here, compared to elsewhere. I don’t think we’re as politically minded. When you look at different communities or areas, like in L.A. or Mexico or South America, street art is a social and political statement. It’s used to tell stories of the community, and make political statements about conflict. In Northern Ireland for example, street art will actually reflect what’s going on in the streets. I would have thought Aboriginal youth would be doing more political or social art to say ‘We’re here, what the fuck is going on?’ or something that will convey their voices to people, but I haven’t seen that.”

Nonetheless, Bective still believes that there is a place for street art in Perth, hoping that his exhibit will increase our city’s awareness of the art form and encourage more commissioned work. In particular, he emphasises the decorative potential of street art, and its ability to transform an uninviting environment into an urban playground. “Quite frankly, some of our buildings and gas tanks and huge factories are pretty bland and awful, and could do well with some fantastic graffiti,” he suggests. “These artists could be encouraged to channel their expression. Companies could just say, ‘Instead of defacing my wall, why don’t you do some art here?’ Then the art becomes part of the environment, and I think that would be very exciting – and also probably the only way to avoid seeing your building actually defaced.”