By Matthew Hallett
Slideshow: Street art in Hosier Lane
Monash University Senior Lecturer and Fine Arts Course Coordinator, Dr Dan Wollmering says that street-artworks by artists of some notoriety should have measures implemented for their protection.
Wollmering’s proposal comes after the Melbourne City Council sent cleaners to clean up Melbourne’s Hosier Lane, notorious for its street art, and cleaners accidently painted over a famous stencilling of a parachuting rat by reclusive British street artist, Banksy.
“If there is an artist that has this sort of reputation, I would have thought it would be in the very best interests of any council to undertake measures to ensure that there’s some sort of protection”, says Dr Wollmering.
Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Susan Riley, was responsible for sending the contract cleaners to Hosier Lane. She says this action was taken following a request from Police and the Community Consultative Committee to clean up the lane.
“Residents and business owners near the laneway have complained that the stench of urine and filth was disgusting. The condition of the laneway was an embarrassment especially as it is frequently visited by overseas and interstate visitors to Melbourne.”
Susan Riley defends the actions of the cleaners saying, “Our cleaners acted on instructions to clean up the laneway and were unaware of the relevance of the Banksy stencil the size of an A4 sheet”.
Monash University’s Dr Dan Wollmering suggests that one way to provide protection of street art by notorious artists, is to employ a full-time person to decide between what is considered ‘vandalism’ and ‘tagging’, and what is considered genuine street art.
“Certainly (for) someone of the calibre of Banksy, someone should be in the position of knowing where these images are, then making an attempt to bring that to the attention of the local council”, Wollmering says.
Banksy’s artworks have a history of selling for high prices, and in January 2008, a Banksy mural on the side of a London building was auctioned off on ebay for over $400,000 U.S. dollars, not including removal costs.
While wanting to have protective measures for artworks by notorious street artists such as Banksy, Dr Wollmering is aware that in painting over other works, protected works could become more prone to vandalism or tagging, “If they paint over everything else; that means the Banksy is suddenly on view and it could become a target”.
In 2008 the Melbourne City Council granted a retrospective legal street art permit for Banksy’s diver stencil located near Cocker Alley, and preserved this work by installing a protective screen over the stencil, however the artwork is no longer on display after a vandal poured paint between the protective screen and the wall displaying the stencil.
City of Melbourne CEO, Kathy Alexander says, “It’s a delicate balancing act to maintain our reputation as Australia’s street art capital, whilst also minimising tagging and vandalism to ensure we appear a clean and welcoming city.”
“The very nature of street art is that it is temporary, transient, vulnerable and forever changing”, Kathy Alexander says.
Dr Wollmering says, “Most cultural works of significance are indoors, and protected by Museums and Galleries…but once you’re drawn to the street, it becomes very much a public domain, and often it’s a private public domain; you’ve got clashes with taggers and so-called artists putting their marks on private property. How do you monitor that?”
“There are standards and society rules that we have to be conscious of too. It’s not black and white, there are many grey areas in this debate and that’s what makes it very interesting”.
Hosier Lane Map
Interview with Dr Dan Wollmering
Interview with Dr Dan Wollmering about Street Art by user6353310
AUSTRALIAN TEEN CULTURE 
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