Street Art - The revolution on our streets

While we sleep, a secret revolution is taking place on our streets. In the darkened alleys of our cities, an anonymous subculture is tiptoeing around making their mark on the blank spaces of our urban landscape.

Graffiti has always been part of our surroundings but continues to grow and change to meet its varying purpose through the ages. As old as the ancient Roman and Greek civilizations, graffiti was originally used to advertise prostitution on the walls of the ancient Greek city of Ephesus. During World War II, the Nazis used graffiti to display anti-Semitic propaganda on the streets of German cities, while the 1980s saw gangs using graffiti tags to mark their territories and warn away their enemies.

Modern techniques have now transformed graffiti into an art form. The use of stencils requires more thought, time and patience. The image needs to be designed, cut out on paper, acetate or metal, and painted onto a wall. Many stencils require a number of layers and colours to achieve more detail and take more time than a quick spray of paint, as each layer needs to dry before the next one is applied.

Banksy, one of the leading stencil artists on the scene today, can be credited for pushing street art to new levels. His anarchist rat, which accompanies slogans like, "Because I'm worthless" and "Please love me", combines strong imagery with an equally powerful message to make political statements about everything from society, capitalism, war and individuality.

Growing up in Bristol, Banksy was involved in the graffiti scene in the 1980s but moved into stencil art because it allowed him more time to create each work. His messages, splashed all around the world from London's East End to Israel's West Bank barrier, can take up to six hours to create.

Banksy is not one to be told his work is not art. For a number of years he has been an 'art terrorist' planting his own work amongst those hanging in the world's major galleries including the Tate in London and The Met in New York. He also managed to exhibit a "rock painting" called Early Man Goes to Market , that depicted a caveman with a spear pushing a trolley at the British Museum in London.

The painting, which remained unnoticed until Banksy posted a message on his website, accompanied a caption that stated: "This finely preserved example of primitive art dates from the Post-Catatonic era and is thought to depict early man venturing towards the out-of-town hunting grounds. The artist responsible is known to have created a substantial body of work across the southeast of England under the moniker Banksymus Maximus, but little else is known about him."

"Most art of this type has unfortunately not survived," continued the caption. "The majority is destroyed by zealous municipal officials who fail to recognise the artistic merit and historical value of daubing on walls."

Melbourne street artist Haha is also making a name for himself in the stencil art scene. Having studied mechanical engineering for a year Haha dreamt of taking over the world with an army of robots. He managed to make a few but not quite enough to achieve world domination, so he now rules the streets of Melbourne with his trademark robot stencils.

Haha tries to create an emotional response with his stencil art, but there's also an element of rebellion in his purpose. He believes his art says, "I was here. I vandalised your building. This is cool. My stencil is bigger that yours. Life is just one big joke!"

While street art continues to be illegal Haha believes the scene is getting bigger.

"There's new stuff up every day," he says. "There are young kids getting into it. There are graffiti artists who've never done it before getting into it."

Since two graffiti police task forces were introduced in Melbourne in December last year, 26 people aged between 17 and 34 have been arrested.

"Graffiti's not art," says Police Minster Tim Holding. "It's vandalism and it's something we deplore."  

In an effort to clean up Melbourne's streets before this year's Commonwealth Games years of street art was painted over. But the street artists of one of the world's graffiti capitals refuse to give up their art.

Street art has long been a way of giving the finger to authority but these new messages are being shouted out loud and clear by a group of people who refuse to let apathy take hold. They might not be out there protesting in rallies or campaigning against specific causes, but in their quiet way, they're reaching a group whose voices have previously been unheard.

Once you've seen one stencil, you'll find it impossible to miss the hundreds of others that are tucked away in our urban landscape. Graffiti's long history suggests that police graffiti task forces or not, freshly painted walls simply leave a blank canvas for stencil artists to carry on the work hundreds have done before them, for thousands of years.

Anabel Pandiella

Photos by Adrian Turley

Sydney's first Stencil Festival is on between 1 June- 5 June