First of this year's See No Evil graffiti appears in Bristol

“Northern irish sectarian 'art' cannot be compared in any way to the art in Bristol! That is a very naive, and dare I say it, stupid comparision”

“in northern ireland they are just starting to get rid of this so called street art”

“@ Cyclista

A good start is the ENCAMS scientific report 'Good graffiti, bad graffiti? A new approach to an old problem' This can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/88y65kh

It makes interesting reading, particularly the section on graffiti walls which when well managed can be quite constructive but when poorly managed can cause more problems than they solve. It contains five case studies. Similarly whilst the report also points out the positives of legitimate art it also points out that legitimate art can also legitimise illegal forms and encourage damage by copycats.

The problem with the headlong rush that the worthies of Bristol seem to be involved in is that the graffiti locations are not well managed and in some places are causing problems. For example, take the Dame Emily Smythe skate park. In the 90s with the tacit approval of the council graffiti artists were allowed to use a wall at the top of the park. Within a couple of years less talented individuals (taggers) had pretty much covered most of the skatepark, surrounding walls, the back of the swimming pool, the Salvation Army hall (despite protestations that taggers and artists *never* did religious buildings), an engineering firm and a number of other locations. Over the last 10 years tagging has spread throughout the area quite significantly. In fact several of the locations painted during the recent Upfest weekend have already been vandalised by taggers.

To some extent this echoes the experiences in Selley Oak where a poorly managed graffiti area led to an explosion of damage.

The 'See No Evil' project has had a similar effect with numerous tags blighting the reverse of the buildings that were painted and even tags appearing on parts of the artwork itself thus indicating that the art may have encouraged others into acts of vandalism as the ENCAMS report states can happen.

Perhaps because of the fame of Banksy the local council seems to be embracing urban art as some sort of global panacea that will solve all ills. Sadly its record on managing sites is poor and in the long term once the novelty has worn off the sites will most likely become eyesores.”

“@ Kaptain-Von

"......case studies have shown......"

Do you have any links or references to these case studies please?”

“I'm an old curmudgeon but I like the artwork in Nelson Street. It brightens up what is without doubt the ugliest street in Bristol.

Now I see visitors actually making Nelson Street a place to visit armed with cameras.

Ideally, all the buildings along the north side of the street will eventually be demolished but in the meantime See No Evil is a welcome distraction.”

“It seems to me that there is a minority with their own agendas regarding 'urban art' who wish to foist them on the silent majority whilst stridently claiming "it's good for Bristol". When those opposed to it raise their concerns the strident minority call them out of touch, fascist or worse.

Whilst some urban art can be constructive when in the right place, case studies have shown that in a number of cases it can in fact be detrimental to the local environment in the long term (seemingly legitimising more illegal forms of graffiti and where graffiti walls are not properly policed, causing overspill into surrounding areas).”

“Here Here spiggett it is a bloody eyesore and the Mayor better get it covered over or removed”

“"You are in the minority here, just accept it is there and move on. You never need to walk down that street anyway"
-Sorry, didn't realise after 40 odd years of walking down it that you owned it now, and that free speech had also been abolished...”

“Noting says 'Bristol' more than a crouching fox hugging its tail.”

“Every time a graffiti story is posted you have a whine about it Spiggett. You are in the minority here, just accept it is there and move on. You never need to walk down that street anyway, it is the back of nowhere.”