news, latest-news

A CENTRAL Ballarat cafe is considering using some of the city’s street artists to paint an interior feature wall, after seeing an example of their work in The Courier on Saturday.Local graffiti artists, known by their tag names CAX and TYME, recently painted the side of the Skipton Street fish shop at the request of the owners.The design has drawn acclaim from many sectors of the community, including Ballarat City councillor and chair of the city’s public art advisory committee, Des Hudson.The artists also told The Courier that graffiti is misunderstood, claiming that the majority of street artists follow a number of unwritten “rules” which loosely govern tagging in Ballarat.Rules such as no “hitting” churches, cemeteries and heritage listed buildings are among the guidelines followed at street-level, the artists say.Dale Archer, from Cafe De’Oro in Lydiard Street, said he was amazed at the quality of the work produced by the two men.“They’ve got some real talent,” he said.“It just looks great — I’m sure something like that would look good in the cafe.”Mr Archer said he was due to re-paint the wall anyway, which is a focal point for the cafe.“I just don’t want to paint it a random colour, so hopefully we can create something unique,” he said.“It’s the main wall inside the cafe — it’s the first wall you see as you walk in.”Mr Archer said he was against random tagging but enjoyed the work of proper urban artists.“I hate all the little squiggles around the place — I can’t stand it,” he said. “But when I see stuff like what they’ve done on that wall, I’m all for it.”CAX and TYME say Ballarat’s tagging problem would almost disappear if the City of Ballarat provided public areas devoted to urban art. Cr Hudson said it was worth investigating possible locations, but said local taggers should cease tagging public buildings as an act of good faith.Follow @JordanHOliver

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/silverstone-feed-data/6802c196-5992-4a0e-a956-67aad3763bac.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpg