Naomi Bulger: messages in bottles

When I lived in New York, I was one block away from this famous painting in SoHo by Banksy.

My friend Misha and I would walk past and say “Rat, Rat, Ratty,” just like we did when the real rats scared the bejesus out of us by running across our paths on trash night in summer.

Then when I moved back to Australia, my husband and I bought a house in Enmore, a suburb of Sydney’s Inner West. There are so many things we loved (still love) about that house and neighbourhood, but one of our greatest pleasures was walking the dog around the back streets of Enmore and Newtown and looking at all the amazing street art.

I was so in love with what the artists of my neighbourhood had created that on one morning with the dog, I created a gallery of some of my favourites, and posted them in my blog (the gallery is called Artists Among Us and you can view it here). 

My only regret is that the particular route I took bypassed a street pole around which some artist had knitted or crocheted (I don’t have the skills to tell the difference) a multi-coloured ‘sock’. Now I’ve moved away (albeit only temporarily), and I don’t know if it’s still there, but it’s so clever and you should check it out. Even street poles need to stay warm in the winter. 

Your mission
(Sydneysiders, here is your mission for this weekend: walk up Cavendish Street until you get to the Enmore Road end, then take the laneway directly opposite that runs parallel to Enmore Road. Wander those back laneways a bit, and find it for me. It's not far from the vegan cafe. You know the one? Then take a photo, and send it to me. I’ll post it on this blog. The first person to do this for me gets a FREE copy of Airmail.)

The thing is, I’m aware that not everyone sees street art the way I do. Some people see it as vandalism, the defacing of somebody else's property. And I guess if you own the property, you could have a point! Likewise, I certainly don't think all graffiti is street art. 

The gates at the back of our house have been graffitied with a giant, lime-green skull and crossbones. We love it, and so do our kids. Especially since we have planted such a beautiful haven of a garden inside. We love the juxtaposition of peering through an old metal gate with a skull and crossbones on it, into a rather old-fashioned cottage garden, full of herbs and flowers and peeling white paint on the brickwork of the house, with a bright blue door. 

But that’s us. 

And I confess, we did try to scrub the tagging off of our front gate when we cleaned up the rest of the street on the weekend of our wedding. 

But what I really want to know is: what do you think? 

Answer me this: 

1. At what point does vandalism become art? 
   
2. And vice versa (at what point does art become vandalism)? 
   
3. Is it always wrong to paint on someone else’s property without their permission? 
   
4. What does street art say about a city?