A STORMIE BLEW THROUGH VINCENT YESTERDAY AND TODAY

Something quite awful happened the other day, the local council painted over this awesome and long established piece by Stormie Mills...

Stuart St
Stuart St

As would be expected there has been quite the outcry, even Stormie got involved and rightly so.

photo by Stormie Mills

Sadly the blame for how this occurred has been somewhat misdirected. People have been targeting the City of Vincent, sure their staff organised a contractor to paint over this piece, but they were directed to do so by the Police. An error occurred, a sad one but mistakes happen. Trust me I'm as pissed off as the next person, I loved driving up Fitzgerald St and seeing this piece. What's really annoying is the cops had no right to order this, that wall you see belongs to Stormie Mills. That's the fuck up.

In defence of the City of Vincent.

Most of you will know that I am a huge fan of street art and the cataloguing of our cities awesome collection. As such I have in the past felt the need to approach the City of Vincent to point out that some so called "graffiti" should be preserved. In particular this piece ...

imperial speeder


The city acted 100% in the positive towards preserving that piece. In fact it's still insitu some 4 years later (worse for wear and a little torn up, but still there). Hell, one of the pictures I took of this piece even got published in the Netherlands. Well worth the preserve in my opinion. But the point to be made here is that Vincent have always (ever since I've lived here = 14 years) been supportive of street art. In fact they were the major sponsor of the recent PUBLIC event, the pictures from which I've been blogging the past few weeks. Not the city of Perth, where 90% of PUBLIC was held, the City of Vincent. There can be no question regarding their support for this art form. Be angry this has happened peeps however be angry towards those who are truly responsible.

I think the final word should be left to Stormie himself

Statement from Stormie Mills

I understand progress, I’m all for it. I understand we exist in a constantly changing world, I embrace changes. I also believe that some people think that it’s okay to do what they want to others in their pursuit of money and I’m against that, especially when it’s linked to such injustices. I was only thinking this morning after driving past Ross’ Salvage in Maylands, an iconic place that’s being pulled down for development and has for years been a spot that has had a variety of ever changing graffiti on it, how at times things can seem so futile. How many people that did graffiti there got caught? What happened to them? How did it effect their lives? Now the building is being knocked down, all over, gone and with that, the graffiti and those coats of paint as well. So to see a developer paint over a wall without permission, to lose a character on a wall that’s not being knocked over, that just plain stinks! 
So now the plot thickens: after making a few phone calls it appears that the developers next door signed a document saying that they give permission to the City of Vincent to paint the wall [not all of it I might add, just the bottom band, the usual portion poorly executed]. This is because the WA Police Force are planning to set up a sting operation on the wall starting the 12th of May and the wall will have Police Officers watching it so they can arrest people! I haven’t given permission for any of this; this is insanity, given what I was thinking this morning, this is a complete trip! I don’t want anyone busted for painting my wall; I’ll go out there and paint it myself. It’s my wall! The person from The City of Vincent I spoke to said she was sorry but she had a form signed by the developers so that they could do this paint out. The Police have set themselves up to create new offenders and I’m left feeling sick to the stomach! I think I’m going to repaint the wall starting on the 12th of May. If you want to help me protest this madness, come down, we’ll have a paint party…

Stormie

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