In the late 1990s there was a lot less graffiti in Melbourne, but amongst the tags and pieces along the line, Jamit’s steaming coffee cup on the side of a house stood out. It was a personal favourite when I was working for LookSmart, an internet start-up. Every weekday I would take the train from Coburg station into the city, there wasn’t much to look at along the railway line; mostly I read my books, but occasionally I would have a window seat and glance up from my book. Once I saw a rabbit in the North Melbourne rail yards, other times I would mark my journey by spotting a familiar piece of graffiti. Every time I saw Jamit’s piece I would think: another cup of coffee, very appropriate for a Melbourne morning.
The coffee cup was a rare time that Jamit painted along the Upfield line. Mostly he worked on the Hurstbridge line and around Camberwell. The wall where the coffee cup was painted is a long blank cream brick wall running the length of the house and directly facing the railway tracks near Anstey Station. It is the perfect wall for graffiti and Jamit’s friends knew the owner of the house who had given permission for it to be painted. Shame and possibly Ron B Me were there, it was a decades ago and Jamit doesn’t remember now. They had ladders and were painting in the daylight. Unfortunately he also can’t remember what brand of spray paint they were using because it has great durability, the paint hasn’t faded or deteriorated after many years. People talk about graffiti as ephemeral but a piece can last ages.
Jamit sprayed a large white coffee cup filled with hot steaming coffee on the wall. Jamit explained that “the coffee cup was settled on because, let’s be honest, coffee is a generally accepted symbol of friendship and funkiness in Melbourne. Try going into the old Rue Bebélons and asking for a milkshake. They would have accommodated it, no doubt, but not without a short, awkward, double-take.” An elderly passer-by liked the coffee cup; on the day it was painted he climbed up on a ladder to pose as if he was drinking from the cup.
After spraying the coffee cup freehand Jamit added his tag, in a stencil. This is unusual for an old school graffiti writer but was not unusual for Jamit, he had done it for years. He can’t remember anyone else in Melbourne using stencils at the time and there Puzle claims that Jamit did the first stencil northside in 87-88. “When I was commuting to school along the Hurstbridge line, I saw paintings by Bo the Snoutcatcher. It struck me that graffiti needn’t use spraypaint directly onto the wall in the conventional way at the time.”
Melbourne’s graffiti scene was very different in the late 80s and early 90s, without the internet the scene was more insular. Jamit’s graffiti was not famous but graffiti is not a popularity contest it is about getting pieces up. Jamit had been doing that for years, mostly large-scale colourful blockbusters and italicised blockbusters. “Hugh Dunit was there too, though he wasn’t appreciated until later on—too little too late in my opinion.”
Impressed by the “…very straight-forward graffiti by Tubby and Raffles, whose tags were between Camberwell and Canterbury”, he had started working with his friend that he had known since primary school, Worm, as well as doing some writing with Mags in Rosanna.
It was an old-school scene based along the railway lines and hip hop music mostly supplied by Central Station Records. “Back then I loved Strange Tenants, Kool Herc, Schooly D, Rammellzee, all the breakdance stuff and even Malcolm McLaren, at the time not thinking much about a white guy coming in and capitalising on it all.”
Jamit is now living in Singapore and, although he still does the occasional piece, he is now, in his own words, a changed person. Although much of the graffiti from the 90s has now faded away or been capped, buffed or otherwise vanished, Jamit’s coffee cup is still on the wall looking as fresh as it ever did and I still see it every time I take the train.
Black Mark 