Publish Date: 9-Sep-2004
A plan to defy Vancouver's anti-graffiti bylaw is on hold. Neal Nolan, curator of Misanthropy Gallery (440 West Pender Street), says he had considered painting over the graffiti on the gallery's west-facing wall as per the city's order, but with an unauthorized mural. Now, with filming of the movie Fantastic Four in the area, Nolan says the production company has told him that covering up the graffiti isn't necessary.
Nevertheless, five of the Eastern Canadian artists who were originally going to help with the mural will still exhibit at the gallery. Nolan told the Straight that their show, entitled Mischief and running Saturday (September 11) to October 3, "explores the existence of marginalized public art", including graffiti and other appropriations of public property.
But the former consultant to the city on public-space artwork said he still intends to challenge the bylaw, which he claims contravenes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. To that end, Nolan is getting a legal opinion about whether or not civic authorities can force business owners to cover up graffiti. "City hall doesn't understand the graffiti and public-art subculture in Vancouver, and we're trying to let them know it's not an evil thing," he said.
Reached at his office, Jag Senghera, coordinator of Vancouver's graffiti-management program, said he's heard arguments that the law limits freedom of expression. "I don't know how the person can think we're against the Charter," he countered. "I think you'd still have to be following municipal bylaws. Just because I own a piece of land doesn't mean I can do whatever I want with it."
Senghera downplayed the recent controversy surrounding the bylaw, including accusations that a Main Street punk-rock bar had to close partly because of graffiti-removal fees from the city. "With the Cobalt, we were trying to work with them in developing a mural," he said. "And they were not getting that mural completed. And we'd been working with them for a year. It's not like we're taking a real hardheaded approach to these things. Our bylaw enforcement is the last tool we want to use. We want to work with people."