Sir, Step Away From the Graffiti

An Canadian Australian law-and-order stunt gone awry:

The ACT's Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has asked the police to investigate if Liberal MLA Steve Pratt has broken the law by painting over a graffiti mural while proving a point about vandalism.

On the weekend, Mr Pratt invited the media to watch him clean the mural at Woden which is believed to be a legal artwork commissioned by a local sporting club.

Mr Pratt says Mr Stanhope is wrong and that the area isn't zoned for public art.

"Even if it was legally commissioned artwork, it should not have been painted in an area that is not a designated art mural area," he said.

"And secondly it is totally inappropriate for it to be placed on the entrance way to a cemetery which is a sacred and a serene place."

Charles Paul Freund profiled the kind of artist that would give Pratt nightmares back in 2004.

Comments

Warren | April 18, 2007, 9:08am | #

Mr Pratt says Mr Stanhope is wrong and that the area isn't zoned for public art.

Not zoned for art?! Fricken Canada. What a bunch of hozers.

The Hanson Brothers | April 18, 2007, 9:42am | #

Hey. Stanhope took my quarter.

Jason | April 18, 2007, 9:52am | #

A slight correction. That story is from Australia. ACT is the Australian Capital Territory.

Isaac Bartram | April 18, 2007, 10:00am | #

Jason beat me to it.

If you want to irritate a Canadian you call him a American.

But if you call an Australian a Canadian...well I don't want to be around to see the consequences.

creech | April 18, 2007, 10:05am | #

Gee, it's going to be so easy to take their oil when the time comes.

R C Dean | April 18, 2007, 10:09am | #

Australia has oil?

The Steve Irwin Five | April 18, 2007, 10:20am | #

Croikey! The Dingo ate my baby!

Rhywun | April 18, 2007, 11:04am | #

That story is from Australia.

Yeah, I was about to ask what the heck is an "MLA". Same as "MP"?

So... the local sporting club owns the entrance to a cemetery? Um, OK.

Anyway, I despise graffiti of the "pissing to mark territory" sort - which is about 95% of it where I live. But usually it's obvious which is pissing and which is meant to convey some other content. Maybe ordinary graffiti is more artistic in Australia...

Warren | April 18, 2007, 11:38am | #

That story is from Australia.

Oh well, that's different... Wait a minute, it's not different at all. Fricken Australia. What a bunch of drongos.

Isaac Bartram | April 18, 2007, 12:18pm | #

So... the local sporting club owns the entrance to a cemetery? Um, OK.

I'm fairly sure that cemeteries in Australia are either state or city owned. It's not the kind of thing that was ever private there.

Thus the governing authority could permit the painting of a mural there.

Did anyone else check out what the "sporting club" was? I had to google Disk Golf to find out what it was. :)

Sonfuced Mooce | April 18, 2007, 12:39pm | #

mein Gott - I thought the "S" was a "C".

mercy. That changed things a bit

Isaac Bartram | April 18, 2007, 2:02pm | #

Moose, what did you find when you googled that?

:)

VM | April 18, 2007, 2:10pm | #

oooh. you don't want to see that.

Think: Token's reaction in the Lord of the Rings episode!

John C Jackson 3 | April 18, 2007, 2:41pm | #

Who owns the building?

Ah, that's right, the government owns everything.. and as a Liberal MLA, of course that douche owns it by extension..

Warren | April 18, 2007, 4:36pm | #

Think: Token's reaction in the Lord of the Rings episode!

"I don't know. I don't want to know. I'm out"
heh heh heh that was hellafunny