March 2006

BY Sarah L'Estrange

Picture this: tourists visiting Melbourne for the 2006 Commonwealth Games walk down Hosier Lane, a cobbled laneway decorated with graffiti and stencil art, which runs off busy Flinders Street, enjoying the city sites. As they walk they activate a sensory mechanism that sets off a chaotic audio ambush. They hear homeless people talking to each other, and invisible strangers, in whispers and shouts.

This is CLEAN, an audio installation by Melbourne artists Nic Low, Jim Moynihan and Stephen Mushin. CLEAN plays in Hosier Lane during the Commonwealth Games, as part of the 2006 Next Wave Festival. Nic explains, “Most of all, I want the piece to challenge people to think about what’s missing when they walk through Melbourne’s streets” which have been tidied up, “whitewashed” Nic says, for the Games.

CLEAN uses the voices of homeless people who Nic has interviewed at places like Credo café, a drop-in centre for people experiencing homelessness, located in the centre of Melbourne.

Nic cites rumours about political posters being taken down, stencil art being covered up and homeless people being shunted into hotels as part of Melbourne City Council’s preparations for the international attention the city will receive during the Games. According to Nic, 4000 square metres of stencil art will be buffed from the walls of the inner city and, just prior to the Games, train corridors will be cleaned of graffiti.

Cleaning up cities is common practice before international sporting events. The historical context to the Commonwealth Games cleanup in Melbourne forms the second part of the CLEAN project — a radio documentary for ABC Radio National program The Night Air. The documentary weaves ABC archival stories about Commonwealth Games held in Australia with the voices of homeless people. It overlaps the history of Commonwealth Games rhetoric, its contemporary hyper-commercialism and the fears and hopes of people who would normally be swept under the carpet for such events.

Last November the Age reported that homeless people would be put in hotels for the duration of the Games. A budget of $60,000 has been provided to pre-book emergency accommodation in rooming houses during the Games, when rooms will be scarcest.

This followed a Department of Housing consultation process, and recommendations from services like St Kilda Crisis Centre and Hanover Southbank that sought to ensure people needing low cost housing during the Games would not find it all booked out. The reports fed rumours among the homeless community that they would be put up in the Hilton, which one homeless person chuckled to Nic about.

Despite the provision for emergency housing, Nic has captured a sense of disappointment on the street. One of his interviewees started crying when he heard that $160,000 would be spent on flower arrangements for the Games — against this $60,000 looks insignificant. And, as Nic discovered after talking to street dwellers, despite consultation and discussion between the State Government, Victoria Police and service providers, the process has failed to inform those most affected: homeless people.

In February, the Victoria Police and the State Government released a policy stating police would not move homeless people on during the Games. Yet, Nic reports a heightened feeling of insecurity by homeless people in the lead up to the Games, as security is tightened. One homeless person he interviewed said they had been asked for identification 15 times in one day. Another received their first begging fine in 14 years. There are many new police on the street brought in from regional areas for the Games. They don’t know the street dwellers and are perceived by the homeless people as more hostile.

Many homeless people Nic interviewed said they would avoid the inner city throughout the Games. This means they will not access the services they normally use and trust.

Nic wants CLEAN’s audience to feel the same sense of disorientation that homeless people have experienced.

If there’s confusion for homeless people, there’s also confusion for Melbourne’s street artists. Greens councillor Cr Fraser Brindley is scathing of Melbourne City Council’s approach to graffiti.

In March 2005 the Council released a draft graffiti strategy, broadly supported by Victorian police, Crime Prevention Victoria and property owners. It outlined a more progressive approach to graffiti, recognising that stencil and street art has reinvigorated Melbourne’s laneways and inner city. But, according to Cr Brindly, the new ‘Love Melbourne’ campaign has hijacked this approach and forced the Council to adopt a zero tolerance policy.

The Love Melbourne campaign was initiated by the Victoria Police to foster civic pride in the prelude to the Games, and is supported by the RSL, Channel 7 and the Herald Sun. The Council has reneged on the proposal for tolerance zones for graffiti. They are now encouraging the public to use the City of Melbourne hotline to report graffiti.

A graffiti policing task force has been established to specifically target graffiti artists before the Games. There have been 19 arrests since the beginning of the year and homes have been raided. On February 16 the Herald Sun reported that British transit police have been enlisted to pursue a prolific Melbourne graffiti artist currently travelling in Europe.

Despite the Love Melbourne campaign, former stencil artist James Dodd says that Melbourne’s artists will most likely call the bluff of Melbourne City Council and continue as normal. Dodd notes that contrary to popular belief, street art reduces crime as it invites people to areas that are normally disused. The Melbourne 2006 Graffiti Games have been set up in response to the graffiti taskforce and the Council’s anti-graffiti and stencil art policies. Artists who submit their work to a website will be awarded medals in categories such as most elaborate stencil piece, funniest slogan, best caricature of the mayor or other City Of Melbourne councillor and most seditious piece.

Cr Brindley thinks it is hypocritical for the Council to lend support to Love Melbourne’s zero tolerance “war on graffiti” push and simultaneously act as a major partner of the Next Wave Festival, which features work from street artists, and uses public spaces.

He doubts whether zero tolerance will last after the Games because it is expensive to enforce and a diversion of resources. “It’s a reaction to a tabloid campaign that has good intentions but is paternalistic and prescriptive.”

Nic thinks that the effects of Love Melbourne will go largely unnoticed by visitors. Rather, there’ll be an increase of uncertainty for artists and the homeless alike, especially with the influx of private security guards, international police and Victorian police into the city.

Urban Seed, a small homelessness advocacy organisation that does street work in the inner city is also concerned about the impact of the Games for the city’s street dwellers. Urban Seed is running Monitering 2006, a project that will scrutinise and draw attention to how homeless people are treated in Melbourne by the police during Games.

Nic will continue to document the experiences of homeless people and graffiti artists throughout the Games, capturing the voices lost beneath the glitz and glamour of the sporting event.

Check out CLEAN in Hosier Lane from 15 March to 2 April. The CLEAN documentary will air on Radio National on Sunday 26 March at 8:30 pm.

Sarah L'Estrange is a producer/presenter on 3CR Community Radio. She also works for Roomers Magazine, a writing project for people living in rooming houses.