Urban Art Association

Graffiti has ‘pretty much ruined the world’, by Petrusino on Apr 20, 2015 15:12:55 GMT 1, www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/13/david-lynch-decries-pathetic-arts-funding-cuts-and-graffiti

David Lynch has marked an appearance at his first gallery exhibition in Australia by decrying the “pathetic” tendency of governments worldwide to cut funding to the arts as a first resort in the name of austerity.

The American film and TV director commended the public investment in Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art, where a collection of his lesser known works – paintings, prints, installations and photographs – will be shown.

“You all should be very happy and proud you’ve got such a great museum and people dedicated to bringing the arts to Brisbane,” Lynch told a media gathering.

“Money is what’s running the world these days, as you know, and in schools, when they cut costs, art and music are the first things to go.

“It’s a pathetic thing. So keep up the great work being champions of the arts.”

Lynch became a household name as a director with a rare flair for surreal noir, showcased by his cult 1990s TV show Twin Peaks, but had his formative education as a painter. He revealed his distaste for graffiti, which he said had ruined the world.

Philadelphia, which he described as his “biggest inspiration” and a “very sick, corrupt, filthy fear-ridden city” when he went to art school there in the 1960s, was said to be the birthplace of graffiti, Lynch said.

“Graffiti to me has pretty much ruined the world. It’s ruined it for film. When you go to a place to film, everything is graffitied so if you don’t want it, you have to paint it out,” he said.

“So much great architecture is graffitied over, so many great train stations, factories, are graffitied over and it’s a horrible, horrible thing. Trees have gone away and graffiti has taken their place.”

In a wide ranging question and answer session, Lynch spoke of everything from his devotion to transcendental meditation (“twice a day, never missed a meditation for 40 years”) to his resentment of anti-smoking regulations and inexplicable love of “smokestacks” and “oil impregnated earth”.

He was tight-lipped in response to inevitable questions about the widely-anticipated third season of Twin Peaks, which ended prematurely in 1991.

However, Lynch did reveal that the idea to revisit the show had its genesis in lunches four years ago with co-writer Mark Frost at “one Hollywood’s oldest restaurants”, Musso and Frank Grill.

Lynch’s comments on the importance of arts funding were later applauded by the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, who as arts minister welcomed the auteur in a speech in which she revealed her love of Twin Peaks.

Palaszczuk also told reporters she was considering restoring the premier’s literary awards, which were axed by her conservative predecessor Campbell Newman in one of his first acts in office.