When the graffiti bylaw was still up for debate, an online petition against it was drawn up and signed by the likes of Ricky Lee Gordon, Sydelle Willow Smith, Nadine Botha, Andreas Spath, Kyla Rose Smith, Alexandra Biess, Erefaan Pearce, Uno de Waal and Neil Steenkamp. Here are a few comments that stood out.
Rosemary Lombard: “The proposed bylaw defines all public art on walls in brushstrokes too broad – if passed, positive forms of expression will be criminalised. This will not solve the problem of vandalism, but merely open up more space for illegal activity.”
Ryan Jales: “Cape Town’s emerging graf artists are being recognised internationally. Why can’t we, locally, recognise our own talent?”
Cal Bruns: “Legislation like this fails to consider the social advancement evidence in support of graffiti projects in townships. Wake up to the possibilities, politicians, and say no to this poorly crafted piece of legislation!”
Amy Lehner: “There are many beautiful murals that improve the appearance of otherwise bleak corners of our city. It is important to differentiate between these and vandalism.”
Bryn Divey: “Let’s not turn the city into another bland, aesthetically commercially controlled wasteland.”
Zola Tsotetsi: “The street is our gallery. If the city only permits big corporations to advertise their products on our places, where do individuals stand who don’t gain any monetary value from beautifying our own places.”
Richard O’Mahony: “Upon visiting Cape Town last year I was blown away by the amazing paintings and murals around the city and on the sides of buildings. Cape Town is brimming with amazing, creative people and to stifle their talents would be nothing but destructive. Cape Town is a beautiful city – all the more for its fantastic street art.”
Aiden Steenkamp: “Keep the city colourful and inspiring for all who cannot afford to go to a gallery or have the luxury of a library.”
Maciek Strychalski: “If there is to be any policy making, it should be targeted at advertisers who display signs/slogans/imagery etc that is specifically aimed at hurting people’s self-perception and breaking down community pride.”
Mirjam Asmal-Dik: “Please don’t underestimate the value of art (especially graffiti!) to enrich people’s lives and its capacity to communicate socially relevant messages”
Aksel Anker Henriksen: “Criminalising public art will only lead to a crime surge.”
Neil Steenkamp: “Art is not a crime”
Question: Public art or public nuisance? | Creative Cape Town
December 14th, 2011
[...] Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, MD of Cape Town Partnership, explains: “The line between legal and illegal public art is not always easy to draw, since it is open to interpretation and subject to differing views. Consensus is not easily reached. All artists must get pre-approval for their works to avoid contravening bylaws. But during the World Cup, these bylaws were interpreted in a way that resulted in a more enabling environment for public art. Installations breathe life into public spaces that would normally go unnoticed. A happy medium must be found and mapped out in policy form. In this way it will not be so much about ‘illegal’ or ‘legal’ public art from a bylaw perspective, but about a vision of how public art can enrich Cape Town’s public spaces.” [...]
clinton o
December 22nd, 2011
It is obvious that very few people support this by law and yet it has still been passed because politicians don’t really care what most people think. We should not allow politicians and city beureacrats to decide what constitutes art and come up with pointless policies and processes to control what is allowed and what is not allowed in our public spaces. Their vision will always be influenced by what those who have money and fund their political campaigns want. Just as the Cape Town Partnership and the CCID will always promote the interests of the big property developers, who want a sanitised city, free of colour, in more ways than one. It is interesting that the Cape Town Partnership has tried to be very dipolmatic on this issue as anyone who is interested in promoting creativity and culture would have opposed this by law yet they can’t as they are at the mercy of the capitalists who pay the levies that pay their salaries.