Is anyone else noticing another recent upsurge of graffiti in town? Our new office building has been defaced on the cream painted newly rendered end wall, and I'm sorry but, apart from the fact that I didn't give permission for my building to be enhanced in this way, it isn't even good quality art.
Don't get me wrong, I'm generally a fan of quality street art in the right locations, and while there are many shabbier areas of town that frankly could only be enhanced by having a bit of spray paint applied, my smart new building isn't one of them. It's a fine period building that was recently the subject a long-term regeneration project and everyone around us has been delighted with the result.
When will graffiti vandals - because that's effectively what they are - realise that by applying their unwelcome daubings to other people's property without permission, they are simply alienating a huge proportion of local people, making it impossible for their work to be widely appreciated?
Or is that the point? Is graffiti really about art, or is that just a disguise that some vandals hide behind to get attention? Is it simply about having the power to cheese people off anonymously by defacing their property when no-one's looking? Or are there actually two separate groups of graffiti artists (I use the term fairly loosely here) on the streets who are totally at odds with one another and are the true artists are simply being tarred with the vandalism brush (groan) because their alter egos, the destructive anti-social front, are bringing them into disrepute?
What do you think?