• Hive gallery’s Conrad Oma says where cops couldn’t help tackle taggers, graffiti artists have stepped in. Photo by Steve Grant

AFTER getting the brush-off from police, a local art gallery has enlisted the help of graffiti artists to tackle chronic tagging.

Despite Hive Gallery in North Fremantle being vandalised every week, police told owner Conrad Oma they were understaffed and didn’t have the resources to help.

“Every Sunday night the council was out there painting the wall black,” he said.

Local urban artists Jerome Davenport, Jackson Harvey and Luke O’Donohoe have stepped in to create one of Perth’s biggest murals.

“A mural is never guaranteed to deter vandals but in the week we were painting the wall the front of the building was damaged twice whereas the wall itself was left untouched, this proves a good point,” Davenport told the Herald.

Mayor Brad Pettitt—who’d copped flak from cops months ago for suggesting graffiti art could help stem graffiti vandalism—swung in behind the project when the artists approached him.

“The council was out there every week having to paint over graffiti,” he says, adding the council threw $7000 in to cover the cost of spray paint.

The artists didn’t charge for their time.

“For us it is the beginning of a project we hope to expand, as we tackle larger and more prominent walls in Perth in an attempt to beautify otherwise ugly walls,” Davenport says.

“It’s about promoting aerosol art as a valid form of artistic expression in the public forum, as opposed to illegal vandalism.”

Davenport says a nautical theme seemed appropriate for Fremantle and the community.

by OCEAN TRIMBOLI