I first came across reverse graffiti in 2006 and wondered how cops & councils would react, as it’s cleaning a surface rather than putting something else onto it. It looks like Greenpeace are taking on the methods refined by the street advertising crews to spread their message. But their official-looking witches hats and high-vis vests didn’t save them from getting nabbed this week in Canberra. On Wednesday AAP reported:
TWO Greenpeace activists have been arrested for graffiting the streets of Canberra to push for strong action on climate change.
The two activists were stencilling a logo for their new campaign with the words “Don’t Kev It Up” using a technique known as clean or reverse graffiti.
The technique involves using a stencil and high power water hose to selectively clean a dirty surface leaving behind a message in the grime.
The new campaign, DirtyKev, promises to make the Prime Minister’s name a dirty word if he doesn’t commit to big carbon cuts at the Copenhagen climate conference in December.
“If Kevin Rudd does a deal for the big polluters at Copenhagen, we’re asking Australians to pledge to make his name a dirty word,” Greenpeace climate campaigner John Hepburn said.
The two activists have been charged with willfully defacing territory property and could face a fine of over $1,000.
They will face the ACT Magistrates court on Friday.
No word yet on what the outcome of Friday’s appearance was.
Something to think about: What’s it say that the dirtiest streets they could find to tag in Canberra were around Parliament House?
Elsewhere in News Ltd land, the Gold Coast Bulletin has a smug piece on some taggers who were recently busted, one of whom tried to assert – wrongly – that he couldn’t be filmed outside the Magistrates Court. I reckon Renee Redmond’s way off the mark asserting that vision of a spotty 17yo having a go at the parasitic TV crews that hang around outside courts would be great in primetime, or any other time. (Five bucks says Redmond is a big fan of “kwality” television like Bert’s 20 to 1.)
A few of the reader comments that caught my eye seem to be typical community reaction when the word graffiti is used. No sense of a distinction between tagging (taggers should stick to legal walls to learn/refine their craft), which I’m not in favour of, and stencils, stickers and paste-ups which I find endlessly fascinating.
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