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Vice Blog

AUSTRALIA - A NEW BOOK ABOUT THE ART OF THE STREETS

I'm bored with graffiti. Actually that's not entirely true - what I'm really bored with is the constant inane debate over art vs. vandalism that comes with graffiti. Let's settle it here and now, and never be so boring as to speak of it again; graffiti is art as long as it's not done on my roller door. Ok? ok!

But in case you need to be reminded just how good graffiti can be (and we're sure you do) a very good place to start would be with a copy of Kings Way: The Beginnings of Australian Graffiti : Melbourne 1983-1993 which has just been released with 1,200 pages of amazing photography and interesting commentary.

Already touted as the equivalent to New York's Subway Art, it's the first definitive book about the Melbourne scene covering all of the town's artists and the scene's evolution. It also includes mention of the coolest guy to get behind the lever, Ron the Train Driver. Ron was the silent king of this scene - the southern hemisphere's public servant version of Henry Chalfant, who would actually stop the train he was driving to take photos of graffiti on the lines and hand them out to writers. What a guy.
THE FAT CONTROLLER