Street Art: Art or vandalism ?

As street art explodes around Whangarei, some locals defend it while others call it vandalism. Whangarei Report journalist Karina Cooper reports. 
Street art has exploded around Whangarei at a cost of hundreds of thousands of ratepayer dollars each year as the council foots the clean-up bill.
But locals defended the works by claiming the spray painted stencilled images and small stickers around town are "art".
Works by mystery street artist ATTILA include stickers with the female figure and larger signs. Spray painted stencil images have appeared on traffic lights at the Town Basin, power poles at the top end of Hatea Drive, and on the railway bridge. An image of a boy is on the wall of motorcycle shop, Planet Honda, in Railway Road.
Whangarei District Council senior community services adviser Owen Thomas said large costs are involved with repairing surfaces damaged by street art.
"While it might look like just a bit of paint, newer kinds of graffiti often include stickers, stencils and, in some cases, screen printed carpet tiles.
"When removed, these often damage the surfaces they were fixed to, requiring replacement or expensive repairs," Mr Thomas said.
"Depending on what is graffitied and how, it can cause real safety issues and damage to property. Council or private owners then have to foot the repair bill. At council this costs hundreds of thousands of ratepayers dollars each year."
Despite the bill, a number of locals praised ATTILA's image of a boy as "cool".
"I love this. Whoever this artist is, I'd like to see more of them. Powerful," Anna Sutton said.
But not everybody is taken with the guerilla-style art.
A Whangarei resident, who did not want to be named, accused street artists of defacing the city and trespassing in their application of the signs.
"If a person has the permission of the property owner, then it can be called graffiti art," Mr Thomas said.
"Graffiti crosses the line into vandalism when it is done without permission, causing damage to someone else's property or impacting on it in a way the owner does not want. One seemingly harmless or even attractive piece of graffiti vandalism can attract other graffiti vandals to an area and the problem can sprawl."
CHART chief executive Chris Carey said the graffiti art versus vandalism debate is hinged on talent.
"The good artists tease, inspire, challenge and add colour to our living environments if done well. If done badly, it devalues our appreciation and understanding of the creative spirit and adds work to the people who tirelessly remove graffiti from the city.
"Talent often manifests itself in interesting ways and not always following some traditional model."
 What do you think? Do you know the artist? Text NA then your message to 3365