The game of fame: Mural, graffiti, erasure

Abstract

This paper examines the logics and limits of graffiti management at a key site within an Australian city. Using writers’ narratives, we examine attempts to control the type of graffiti (script) against efforts to control its location (bleed). Our central claim is that both these strategies demand that graffiti only speak its name when it (visually) ceases to be itself—that the ‘best’ graffiti, bureaucratically speaking, is that which functions as its own form of erasure. We conclude by posing and responding to the key question: under what conditions is graffiti permitted to exist?