Tag a wall

On October 5, the art world got Banksy-ed. At the Sotheby's sale, the famed England-based graffiti artist, activist, and filmmaker (and vandal to some), was supposedly present and activated an alarm that saw his painting Balloon Girl (2002) partly shredding itself, after the hammer went down at $1.9 million. The anonymous woman, who won the bid, has decided to keep the painting [now renamed Love is in the Bin], and its overall worth has skyrocketed post damage.

While the white-cube art world handles its art works with kid gloves, Banksy is used to his public satirical and rabble-rousing stencils forever being destroyed given the impermanence of street art as a medium. For instance, at Melbourne, one Banksy 'rat' was wiped off by Melbourne City Council cleaners from Hosier Lane in 2010, while construction workers scrubbed clean a parachuting one on Greville Street in 2013. Even the City of Melbourne council, that refused to save Banksy's rats – as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Other street art haunts in Melbourne, also witness to this impermanence, are AC/DC Lane, Duckboard Place, Rutledge Lane, Union Lane, Presgrave Place, Russell Place, Caledonian Lane... These cobbled or aphsalt alleys act as political and pop culture commentators that street artists use as a release for all forms of subversion through graffiti (guerilla term for street art painted without permission). Strolling through these spaces one can soak in an array of street art styles – subway art (letter font), murals, stencils, paste ups (poster art), and 3D sculpture – in screaming colourful imagery that licks every inch of the walls, windows, poles, posts, pillars, fire hydrants, staircases, doors and dustbins here.

Here artworks by even the gods of street art – Ghostpatrol, Kaff-eine, Ha-Ha, Rone, Sofles, Meggs – get aersoled/wheatpasted over within seconds without guilt here.

For instance, here's a mid-July glimpse of Hosier Lane: Disney princesses Snow White and Cindrella smooching in a niche. A mammoth mural of late American rapper stared broodingly from the facade of Culture Kings, Melbourne's iconic streetwear brand. Few metres down lurked another instance of 'brandalism' – a boy sporting a 'Crompton' cap. A large white tiger licked its lips next to a broken boombox wedged into the wall. Wheatpasted posters and scribbles screamed 'We support the kangaroos unsexed' and 'Aboriginal Land – Real Australians seek welcome', 'Assange's free speech is our free speech'. Street artist under pseudonym @jonydee8 tries to make a scaly dragon look menacing, while shooing photo-takers unless they donated money. Selfie crazies made it a point to pose in front of Ashley Goudie's wedding proposals – the instance here, 'Jaslyn will you marry me?...She said yes!' While another artist, chose to stay anonymous, silently, yet hurriedly completed a portrait of him and his girlfriend in the adjacent Rutledge Lane.

But none of that imagery might exist today, as already few members of an art class conducted by Airbnb were trying their hand at graffiti, spray painting over a few images. Echoing Buddha's concept of anicca (impermanence) – 'decay is inherent in all component things'

Perhaps, acknowledging this foreboding, artist @lushsux created a tribute mural of the much-loved chef, author, documentarian and TV personality Anthony Bourdain at Hosier with a fitting quote by the late celebrity himself, "If a man does not have the sauce, then he is lost. But the same man can be lost in the sauce." But, this writer witnessed two vandals aerosole 'joker' in chubby font on Bourdain's forehead, his face already pockmarked with signatures of other taggers. As if approving the defacing, on the left, is a helmet-wearing John Travolta in his Saturday-Night-Fever avatar, pointing an aerosol can at Bourdain's face instead of the sky.

Even the street art makers do not agree to this ephemeral, transient state of art. Like Goudie, who teaches VCAL kids at Holmsglen Tafe, and claims to have pioneered Melbourne's first Cert 4 class to align with the visual arts qualification in street art, says, "I hate paste ups over good paintings. That's a personal thing, but I think it's selfish and in most cases, unnecessary." Yet, he has to comply.

Some relief, though, are the timeless laneway bars. Sitting on AC/DC Lane, since 1999, is Cherry Bar (Melbourne's first rock bar) doling rock n' roll and 50s-style northern soul live music that syncs with the rockstars' imagery on the facade. Note the graffiti scratched by patrons on the glowing red bar table. Amidst the collage of framed posters and sticker art on Presgrave Place is the crack-in-the-wall Bar Americano, that once was the tiniest watering hole in Melbourne. The coffees and the Negroni are a hit at this four-barstool, 15-people only spot. Come night, Chin Chin restaurant at Higson Lane projects moving images on to the graffiti plastered opposite building.