The Weekend Edition of Daily News (July 20-21 2013) heralded the beginning of a campaign aimed at attacking vandals in the Tweed Shire. The Clean Up Our Streets is a Daily News initiative which shows a complete disregard for Hip Hop culture, and was poorly researched. As a professional Mural and Aerosol Artist, with over a decade of experience, Sauce is getting tired of the vilification and slander which the media constantly propagates. Below is a media release and our letter of complaint to the paper which outlines some of The Sauce Studio’s objections to this portrayal of graffiti.
Media Release 22/07/2013.
The weekend edition (July 20th-21st 2013) of the Daily News made scandalous claims about graffiti and vandalism in the Tweed Shire by highlighting several different ‘hot spots’ where graffiti style vandalism occurs. The article announced a new campaign called ‘Clean Up Our Streets’, however local artist Sauce, says the article is nothing more than “scaremongering and inflammatory’.
Sauce, who has over a decade of professional mural and aerosol art experience explained how articles such as this seek to marginalize youth culture and denigrate the Hip Hop movement. “I’ve spent over a decade advocating the need for recognition of aerosol art as a legitimate art form and articles such as this do nothing except whip people into a frenzy. It doesn’t look at the real issues. This is a multi-faceted topic and ultimately, aerosol artists still don’t have places to paint and the local council doesn’t have money for public art for the next two budgets.”
Earlier this year, Sauce opened an art studio in the heart of the Murwillumbah CBD where the public can experience the different forms of aerosol art. The aim of the studio is to reinforce the positive value aerosol art and to introduce new people to the art form.
Sauce’s work can be seen @ /
Ainslie Rose
Communications and Arts Development Manager
The Sauce Studio
Shop 4/15 CNR of Proudfoots LN & Commercial RD
Murwillumbah
02 6672 1929
Letter of Compaint
To Whom it May Concern,
Please allow my to introduce myself. My name is Ainslie and I am the Communications and Arts Development Manager at The Sauce Studio. The Sauce Studio is the workshop and retail space of professional mural artist, Sauce. Sauce has over a decade of professional experience in creating public art and murals and his work can be seen all over the East Coast of Australia.
I am writing this letter in regards to the “Clean Up Our Streets” campaign as shown in the Saturday 20th July edition of the Daily News. I would like to voice my concerns about the inflammatory language used in the article and unnecessary marginalization of aerosol art and Hip Hop culture. While I understand the need to discourage unwanted vandalism and unwanted and un-commissioned graffiti the manner in which the article suggests the issue is approached in nothing short of cheap and scandalous. As stated previously, Sauce is a professional mural artist with over a decade of experience, and in March this year we open The Sauce Studio in the heart of the Murwillumbah CBD. We felt there was a need to further inform the public about the benefits of aerosol art and hip hop culture. We also sought to stimulate the increase of professional public murals in the Tweed and Northern Rivers area as when they are executed with cultural sensitivity they can be a simple and cost effective method of graffiti prevention.
The article in the Saturday’s edition of the Daily News is poorly researched as The Sauce Studio was not contacted for comment. Not only have we contacted this publication about the opening night, the image shown on page 7 titled ‘Under the Murwillumbah Bridge’ is less than 50 metres from the studio door. It is this lack of research which ignored the facts does not seek to portray this issue as a multi facetted subject.
Further to this, the article does not mention the absolute lack of funding from council to assist with this issue. Both myself and Sauce have approached Tweed Shire Council to attempt the broaden their cultural awareness of this topic and enquire about the budget for public art programs. So far we have been informed there is no budget for such events for the next two years. If this article was well researched, this information would be brought to light, and the truth about public art, murals and aerosol art would be available to the public.
I urge the Daily News to contact myself or Sauce at the Sauce Studio as it is clear there is no cultural sensitivity nor ability to research such a complex issue.
Ainslie Rose
