Making money by destroying culture

Making money by destroying culture

So, it seems that people have taken to advertising on street art hot spots. Paste up advertising or street advertising is killing much of the important lanes in the CBD and inner city. 

Take Duckboard Place. This lane way was part of the hottest street precinct in Melbourne. Linked to AC-DC Lane, Duckboard Place had some of the best art from artist such as: Banksy, Blek Le Rat, Everfresh, Ash Keating, Ha-Ha, Ghostpatrol, Junky Projects and many more, plus Melbourne’s best collection of random shoes thrown over the power line.

When all the artists started painting in that lane it wasn’t called AC-DC and it was full of the best hidden bars and night clubs that Melbourne had to offer. But like the shoes and the art, the night clubs have gone and been replaced by commercial interests.

The people that sell advertising space for paste ups always try and put their advertising in places where people will see it. This had led to them putting adverts in the most famous and hidden street art precincts.  So like some horrible bacteria, the adverts have slowly eaten away at the urban art in Melbourne rendering much of it unsightly and ugly.

Duckboard Place is a good case study, as some of the important artworks were destroyed by construction and gentrification, but much of it must have been a decision by the council, as all the art has been removed and replaced with street advertising zones which I guess the council sells to the street advertisers.

This is a very poor decision by the Melbourne Council as much of the street precincts are already under threat by poor city planning and commercial and not cultural interests. What is happening in Duckboard Place is happening all over inner Melbourne.  This is becoming common practice.

I read that the average person in Melbourne sees well over 4000 adverts a day. I believe we are forced to have enough advertisements in our life. I don’t see why Melbourne’s urban art needs to be destroyed to make room for more.

I can’t imagine how much the street advertisements are making for the council, company owners and advertisers, but I’m not sure it would be as much as these great and important street art precincts earn in the form of tourism, back drops for car ads, education and a space for artists to mess with your head without trying to sell you something other than their weird ideas and bizarre propaganda.

It’s not like I don’t like paste-ups. I think that they are great. I have been using them to tell people for years that they are all the same. People hate being told that. It’s weird that the more we strive for individualism the further away from it we seem. And that’s what happens when street advertisements pretend to be street art. It’s not good for street art aesthetically or intellectually and it’s destroying important art areas. So, I say, go away street advertiser, you bring nothing to the table!

Anywayz, I hope all you punkz have an awesome month.

Come see my show which opens at Darkhorse Experiment on July 6.

And follow me on Instagram: doylesart

Stay kool, stay in skool

Cheers, Doyle

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