FADING APPEAL: Of the four graffiti paintings along the Sungei Ulu Pandan canal, which have started to fade, three will be salvaged. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

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To deal with the problem, the Public Utilities Board (PUB), which gave permission for the works to be done there, will remove the most damaged piece. It has also asked the artist, Azlan Ramlan, 20, to touch up the other three.

Over at the Somerset Skate Park and Youth Park in Orchard Road, the National Youth Council (NYC), which runs both, provides spaces where graffiti artists can let rip with their spray-cans.

True blue graffiti artists used to shadowy operations at night and scrapes with the law are apt to sneer at this. Can government-sanctioned graffiti be called art?

Why not, say Singapore's aerosol artists.

Some take the pragmatic view that they, like other artists, have to play by the rules to survive here. Others think that graffiti doesn't have to be subversive to be considered art.

Who's who in the graffiti world HERE'S a list of the more established graffiti crews in Singapore. They receive regular commissions and their works show up regularly at the Skate Park and Youth Park in Orchard Road. ... more

Graffiti came into the limelight recently, after some cars were vandalised in the Punggol area late last month. Someone had sprayed black paint all over them.

A reader then wrote to The Straits Times Forum page, asking if legitimising spray-paint art in certain spaces could embolden vandals to take their work to other spaces.

In American and European cities with urban landscapes, graffiti is an underground activity.

Evading the authorities, prolific graffiti writers scrawl on freeways, train tunnels and concrete river banks. The most notorious ones gain respect from their peers by painting on high or hard-to-reach places.

In Singapore, the situation is quite different.

The Youth Council sanctioned graffiti art at its Skate Park in 2002, after graffiti started appearing on the grounds.

Now, spray artists can use the grounds, ramps and two purpose-built graffiti walls for their art.

Since then, the council has also added a mural wall at Youth Park.

And for the past two years, the National Arts Council (NAC) has supported at least seven other ad hoc events where organisations have invited graffiti artists to 'deface' their walls, the latest being the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre in May.

Both the Esplanade and the Singapore Art Museum have invited artists to decorate their walls or specially constructed platforms.

Graffiti artists are also commissioned to do work for club openings and product launches.

Mr Lim Chwee Seng, NAC's director of visual arts, says the council treats graffiti art like any other form of visual art when it comes to funding - as long as it is done in legal spaces.

He adds with a laugh: 'If it's spray-painting the CTE tunnel, then it's nothing to do with us.'

But is graffiti art in legal spaces still, by definition, graffiti art?

Artist Milenko Prvacki, 55, dean of the faculty of fine arts at Lasalle College of the Arts, has his doubts.

He says: 'Graffiti art in other places in the world is an underground action and a form of protest.

'Here, we create panels for people to paint, or we pay them fees to do it. The element of subversion is lost.'

Multimedia artist Khairuddin Hori, 33, agrees. He says: 'A lot of what passes as graffiti art is just visual candy, just a design on the wall. There is no statement-making, even of the artistic kind.'

But graffiti artists here beg to differ.

For Zulkarnaen Othman, 28, also known as Zero, graffiti art is just another medium for his artistic practice, and it pays to stay on the right side of the law.

Part of the seven-man art collective Artvsts, he is currently pursuing a degree in fine art at Lasalle.

He says: 'If you get caught and jailed, come out and do it again, get jailed again - then fair enough, your buttocks can take it, I respect you.

'But I know there is a law to obey, and there's no running away from it.'

The punishments for vandals - including spray artists working in non-sanctioned spots - are severe.

They can be fined up to $2,000, or jailed for up to three years. They can also receive three to eight strokes of the cane.

For the authorities at least, these strict rules pay.

Figures from the Ministry of Home Affairs show that vandalism is on the decline. There were 151 cases last year, a drop from about 200 cases each year from 2002 to 2005.

But there is another reason why artists like doing their work on legal walls - their pieces tend to last longer.

Street artist Muhammad Sufian Hamri, 26, also known as Traseone, says: 'The unspoken rule at the walls is that you don't paint over someone else's work for at least a week.

'That doesn't always happen, but if I do it illegally somewhere, someone will clean it up even more quickly.'

Being absorbed into the mainstream has other benefits, and the four people who make up ZincNite Crew (ZNC) know this well.

In 2000, they were caught spraypainting an underpass in Pasir Ris, and had to do 100 hours of community service.

They found themselves painting tables and chairs for handicapped homes and even did a graffiti mural for the Mendaki building, which is still there.

The group has since gone legit. Last year, together with another crew, Project Burnerz, it was commissioned to decorate the facade of the NYC building in Orchard Road.

ZNC founder Rozaimie Fahbi, 26, also known as slacsatu, says the group used to do it illegally because graffiti art was not recognised as a valid art form.

He says: 'Now there is a working environment for us. We get commissions because we have a reputation.

'Legal or illegal, we're still using aerosol, so it's still graffiti art.'

Luthfi Mustafah, 27, who created one of the most well-known graffiti characters here, The Killer Gerbil, says that his art is a way of making a living. He pulls in about $1,200 a month from commissions, mostly from companies, to do murals for events.

He says: 'My art is a way of beautifying the environment. Graffiti art can be accepted as an art form even if there is no message behind it.'

Artist Kamal Dollah, 39, who painted murals at the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre, feels that graffiti art might have its roots in the streets, but it has moved on.

He is even hired to give graffiti art workshops in schools.

He says: 'Graffiti art has evolved. It came from the ghetto, but now it's a style that is in clothing, advertising and art galleries.

'I don't have to tag electrical boxes before I can be called a graffiti artist. That's just irresponsible.'

chiahta@sph.com.sg

'Graffiti art in other places in the world is an underground action and a form of protest. Here, we create panels for people to paint... the element of subversion is lost'

Artist Milenko Prvacki