Grafitti slash street art is a pretty touchy subject in New Zealand cities. The vandalism versus artistic expression debate has avid suppporters in both camps. Auckland has what seems to be a zero-tolerance policy, which is why many walls in public spaces have a patchwork, painted-over appearance. Cities such as New Plymouth, however, seem to have embraced the art of one masked marauder. A series of paste-up portraits by an unkown artist called Eno literally bring character to the relatively new Huatoki Plaza.

Recently, LA contributor Philip Smith visited the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. While there he was struck by the philosophical tone of some of the words and images he found written on city walls. He says:
“I am generally fairly indifferent to graffiti, but there is a special quality to many of the images emblazoned by young Spaniards upon the walls of their cities. As in Italy, there is a strong political impetus behind many Spanish works of graffiti, although they strike me as being more playful – and less aggressive – than typical Italian images.”