Artists vs Council

To most people, a colourful mural created by a local would far outweigh the patchy grey paint that soon follows, and is always considered by the authorities as cleaner, safer, and better for the community. But it would seem that this point of view, held by the Auckland Council, is the most important. In a Graffiti vandalism brochure brought out by the council, they state: "Graffiti Vandalism can lower property values, can encourage other types of crime and often makes a community appear unsafe to live in". But never once, does the brochure aim to shead light on what is acceptable graffiti art, and what is vandalism. Bios comments like this should not be included in a brochure summary

It would seem like this city is run by out-of-touch people who don’t actually agree that this is a legitimate artistic genre. An outlet for artists that call our city their own, and should be allowed the opportunity to spread colour and creativity within it. Our crews are considered some of the best in the world, and are still slandered and squashed out by local councils and law enforcement.


TMD Crew based in Auckland, with writers/artists like Askew, Deus, Phat1, Fiasco, Berst, are responsible for many of the walls around town, and have won the world’s most prolific graffiti competition in Germany bi-yearly since its creation in 2006 - something we should be very proud to be home to.