Street to web
July 1, 2003
There are literally thousands of graffiti sites on the web and despite the sometimes naive censorship antics of anti‑graffiti campaigners, these sites continue to grow in number and quality, as well as providing the sense of place and community that is often absent from our own cities.
Citylights Project
Citylights has been going strong as a public art space since 1996, having featured more than 200 artists in its seven year history. Created by Andrew Mac, Citylights is made up of a website and two contemporary exhibition spaces in Hosier Lane and Centre Place, both in the heart of Melbourne's traditionally gritty CBD laneways. The exhibition spaces consist of a series of lightboxes (varying in size from around one metre) that sit mounted on the alleyway walls.
‑> "Citylights was a response to the changes and gentrification of the city," explains Mac. "Artists were slowly being kicked out of their studios and artist‑run spaces were being forced to close as their rents increased. Less people were going to galleries and being interested in art, so the idea for a public access gallery came up."
‑> As well as featuring graffiti artists in exhibitions such as Throw‑Up: A Survey of Melbourne Street Art, Citylights has featured work from a huge range of creatives including designers, photographers and comic illustrators. The artwork selected usually relates to the Citylights manifesto of utilising the universal language of advertising. ‑> "The public has sophisticated skills in deciphering visuals and that has largely been a result of advertising," Mac says. "The past 30 or 40 years have seen a world full of images and in a sense a new visual language has emerged. In a gallery space, you're lucky if people look at your artwork for more than 30 seconds, so we've exploited this new visual language and way of viewing by using it to push contemporary art onto the streets. <citylightsprojects.com>
cleansurface
"Living archive of public troublemaking, street art, unsanctioned creativity and the urban space remix."
‑> Started by Emile Zile in 1996, the creation of cleansurface was inspired by the label on the back of a spray can. "Graffiti has a social history that is often ignored and not documented," says Emile. "So cleansurface exists as an image‑bank to take the graffiti theme further." The original site focused on graffiti that crossed between creative aesthetics and political satire, but has since expanded to include more art‑based works, interviews, articles, profiles and links.
‑> The site's latest feature is an interactive PHP upload database that is web‑based, making the site portable and highly interactive. Users can register to view an extensive collection of posters, graffiti, stencils, billboards and stickers. Each image has a forum attached for critique and general discussion about any particular image. Like most graffiti sites, the artists usually remain anonymous or are listed under their moniker, like infamous Melbourne artists Shut Up & Shop and OXO OVO.
‑> In August, cleansurface will launch a new photographic and multimedia project as part of SBS's online zine Cornerfold <sbs.com.au/cornerfold>. As well as collaborative work, cleansurface hosts SSS (an acronym for a range of names including Secret Street Society, Simple Sprayed Sign), a social event held on the first Tuesday evening of each month at Misty Bar in Melbourne. The SSS also runs various events, including its unique digital tagging project, which is projected onto a wall with artists having just two minutes to complete a piece. "Street art is such a solo renegade activity; so it's nice to meet other artists in a friendly environment," says Emile.
‑> When asked about how graffiti has crept into design, Emile flips a proverbial coin: "You could argue that designers want to break into underground movements to find a new aesthetic, but you can also argue the other way, and say that street artists take a lot of design elements ‑ like the straight line, digital and 3D imaging ‑ for appropriation, but all styles should simply be fluid and fresh." <cleansurface.org>
Writer: Din Heagney
Issue #183