Graffiti
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Graffiti (singular: graffito; the
plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering
scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property.
Graffiti is sometimes regarded as a form of art and other times regarded
as unsightly damage or unwanted.
Graffiti has existed since ancient
times, with examples going back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire
and may range from simple scratch marks to elaborate wall paintings. In
modern times, spray paint and markers have become the most commonly used
materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without
the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is
punishable by law. Sometimes graffiti is employed to communicate social
and political messages. To some, it is an art form worthy of display in
galleries and exhibitions, to others it is merely vandalism. There are
many different types and styles of graffiti and it is a rapidly evolving
artform whose value is highly contested, being reviled by many
authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same
jurisdiction.
Etymology
Graffiti and graffito are from the Italian word graffiato
("scratched"). "Graffiti" is applied in art history to works of art
produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is
"graffito," which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to
reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters
who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into it. In
ancient times, graffiti was carved on walls with a sharp object,
although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The Greek infinitive γράφειν
- graphein - meaning "to write," is from the same root.
History
The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings,
etc., found on the walls of ancient sepulchers or ruins, as in the
Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Usage of the word has evolved to
include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes
vandalism.
The only known source of the Safaitic
language, a form of proto-Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions
scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly
basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi
Arabia. Safaitic dates from the 1st century B.C. to the 4th century
A.D..
The first known example of "modern
style" graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (in
modern-day Turkey). Local guides say it is an advertisement for
prostitution. Located near a mosaic and stone walkway, the graffiti
shows a handprint that vaguely resembles a heart, along with a footprint
and a number. This is believed to indicate that a brothel was nearby,
with the handprint symbolizing payment.
The ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of
which also survive in Egypt. The eruption of Vesuvius preserved graffiti
in Pompeii, including Latin curses, magic spells, declarations of love,
alphabets, political slogans and famous literary quotes, providing
insight into ancient Roman street life. One inscription gives the
address of a woman named Novellia Primigenia of Nuceria, a prostitute,
apparently of great beauty, whose services were much in demand. Another
shows a phallus accompanied by the text, 'mansueta tene': "Handle with
care".
Disappointed love also found its way
onto walls in antiquity:
Quisquis amat. veniat. Veneri volo
frangere costas
fustibus et lumbos debilitare deae.
Si potest illa mihi tenerum pertundere pectus
quit ego non possim caput illae frangere fuste?
Whoever loves, go to hell. I want to break Venus's ribs
with a club and deform her hips.
If she can break my tender heart
why can't I hit her over the head?
-CIL IV, 1284.
Errors in spelling and grammar in this
graffiti offer insight into the degree of literacy in Roman times and
provide clues on the pronunciation of spoken Latin. Examples are CIL IV,
7838: Vettium Firmum / aed[ilem] quactiliar[ii] [sic] rog[ant]. Here,
"qu" is pronounced "co." The 83 pieces of graffiti found at CIL IV,
4706-85 are evidence of the ability to read and write at levels of
society where literacy might not be expected. The graffiti appear on a
peristyle which was being remodeled at the time of the eruption of
Vesuvius by the architect Crescens. The graffiti was left by both the
foreman and his workers. The brothel at CIL VII, 12, 18-20 contains over
120 pieces of graffiti, some of which were the work of the prostitutes
and their clients. The gladiatorial academy at CIL IV, 4397 was scrawled
with graffiti left by the gladiator Celadus Crescens (Suspirium
puellarum Celadus thraex: "Celadus the Thracian makes the girls sigh.")
It was not only the Greeks and Romans
that produced graffiti: the Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala also
contains ancient examples. Viking graffiti survive in Rome and at
Newgrange Mound in Ireland, and a Varangian scratched his name (Halvdan)
in runes on a banister in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were
frequently scratched on the walls of Romanesque churches.
When Renaissance artists such as
Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio or Filippino Lippi
descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted
their names and returned with the grottesche style of decoration. There
are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as
Signature Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their
names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the
1790s.[6] Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of
Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
Art forms like frescoes and murals
involve leaving images and writing on wall surfaces. Like the
prehistoric wall paintings created by cave dwellers, they do not
comprise graffiti, as the artists generally produce them with the
explicit permission (and usually support) of the owner or occupier of
the walls.
Modern graffiti
Graffiti is often seen as having become intertwined with hip hop
culture as one of the four main elements of the culture (along with
rapping, DJing, and break dancing). However, there are many other
instances of notable graffiti this century. Graffiti has long appeared
on railroad boxcars. The one with the longest history, dating back to
the 1920s and continuing into the present day, is Bozo Texino. During
World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with
accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to
its use by American troops and its filtering into American popular
culture. In the sixties, its popularity was eclipsed by American
graffiti proclaiming that "Yossarian lives!", a reference to the
protagonist of Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22. The student protests and
general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary,
anarchist, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est
contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary"). A famous
graffito of the 20th century was the inscription in the London subway
reading "Clapton is God". The phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on
a wall in an Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. The
graffiti was captured in a now-famous photograph, in which a dog is
urinating on the wall. A popular graffito of the 1970s was the legend
"Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You," reflecting the hostility of the youth
culture to that U.S. president. Graffiti also became associated with the
anti-establishment punk rock movement beginning in the 1970s. Bands such
as Black Flag and Crass (and their followers) widely stenciled their
names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats and hangouts are
famous for their graffiti.
Paris 1968
The student protests and
general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary,
anarchist, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est
contre-révolutionnaire While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense
of the millenarian and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of
verbal wit, of the strikers (the anti-work graffiti shows the
considerable influence of the Situationist movement).
Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible.
Be realistic, demand the impossible.
On achète ton bonheur. Vole-le.
They are buying your happiness. Steal it back.
Sous les pavés, la plage !
Beneath the paving stones - the beach!
Lisez moins, vivez plus.
Read less, live more.
L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire.
Boredom is counterrevolutionary.
Pas de replâtrage, la structure est pourrie.
No replastering, the structure is rotten.
Graffiti as an element of hip hop
In America around the late
1960s, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists,
and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage
Nomads to mark territory. Towards the end of the 1960s, the
signatures—tags—of Philadelphia graffiti writers Top Cat, Cool Earl and
Cornbread started to appear. Around 1970-71, the centre of graffiti
innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of
TAKI 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname,
"bomb" a train with their work, and let the subway take it—and their
fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough—"all city".
Bubble lettering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx,
though the elaborate writing Tracy 168 dubbed "wildstyle" would come to
define the art. The early trendsetters were joined in the 70s by artists
like Dondi, Futura 2000, Daze, Blade, Lee, Zephyr, Rammellzee, Crash,
Kel, NOC 167 and Lady Pink.
The relationship between graffiti and
hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists practicing other
aspects of hip hop, and its being practiced in areas where other
elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms. By the mid-eighties, the
form would move from the street to the art world. Jean-Michel Basquiat
would abandon his SAMO tag for art galleries, and even street art's
connections to hip hop would loosen. Occasional hip hop paeans to
graffiti could still be heard throughout the nineties, however, in
tracks like the Artifacts' "Wrong Side of Da Tracks" (Between a Rock and
a Hard Place, Big Beat, 1994) and Company Flow's "Lune TNS" (Funcrusher
Plus, Rawkus, 1997).
Origins
Between the years of 1969-1974 the "pioneering era" took place.
During this time graffiti underwent a change in styles and popularity.
Soon after the migration to NYC, the city produced one of the first
graffiti artists to gain media attention in New York, TAKI 183. TAKI 183
was a youth from Washington Heights, Manhattan who worked as a foot
messenger. His tag is a mixture of his name Demetrius (Demetraki), TAKI,
and his street number, 183rd. Being a foot messenger, he was constantly
on the subway and began to put up his tags along his travels. This
spawned a 1971 article in the New York Times titled "'Taki 183' Spawns
Pen Pals". Julio 204 is also credited as an early writer, though not
recognized at the time outside of the graffiti subculture. Other notable
names from that time are: SJK 171, Stay High 149, PHASE 2, Stitch 1, Joe
182, Joe 188, Junior 161 and Cay 161. Barbara 62 and Eva 62 were also
important early graffiti artists in New York, and are the first women to
become known for writing graffiti.
Also taking place during this era was
the movement from outside on the city streets to the subways. Graffiti
also saw its first seeds of competition around this time. The goal of
most artists at this point was "getting up": having as many tags and
bombs in as many places as possible. Artists began to break into subway
yards in order to hit as many trains as they could with a lower risk,
often creating larger elaborate pieces of art along the subway car
sides. This is when the act of bombing was said to be officially
established.
By 1971 tags began to take on their signature calligraphic appearance
because, due to the huge number of artists, each graffiti artist needed
a way to distinguish themselves. Aside from the growing complexity and
creativity, tags also began to grow in size and scale – for example,
many artists had begun to increase letter size and line thickness, as
well as outlining their tags. This gave birth to the so-called
'masterpiece' or 'piece' in 1972. Super Kool 223 is credited as being
the first to do these pieces.
The use of designs such as polka dots,
crosshatches, and checkers became increasingly popular. Spray paint use
increased dramatically around this time as artists began to expand their
work. "Top-to-bottoms", works which span the entire height of a subway
car, made their first appearance around this time as well. The overall
creativity and artistic maturation of this time period did not go
unnoticed by the mainstream – Hugo Martinez founded the United Graffiti
Artists (UGA) in 1972. UGA consisted of many top graffiti artists of the
time, and aimed to present graffiti in an art gallery setting. By 1974,
graffiti artists had begun to incorporate the use of scenery and cartoon
characters into their work.
Mid 1970s
By the mid 1970s time, most standards had been set in graffiti
writing and culture. The heaviest "bombing" in U.S. history took place
in this period, partially because of the economic restraints on New York
City, which limited its ability to combat this art form with graffiti
removal programs or transit maintenance. Also during this time,
"top-to-bottoms" evolved to take up entire subway cars. Most note-worthy
of this era proved to be the forming of the "throw-up", which are more
complex than simple "tagging," but not as intricate as a "piece". Not
long after their introduction, throw-ups led to races to see who could
do the largest amount of throw-ups in the least amount of time.
Graffiti writing was becoming very
competitive and artists strove to go "all-city," or to have their names
seen in all five boroughs of NYC. Eventually, the standards which had
been set in the early 70s began to become stagnant. These changes in
attitude led many artists into the 1980s with a desire to expand and
change.
The late 1970s and early 1980s brought a new wave of creativity to the
scene. As the influence of graffiti grew beyond the Bronx, a graffiti
movement began with the encouragement of Friendly Freddie. Fab 5 Freddy
(Fred Brathwaite) is another popular graffiti figure of this time, often
credited with helping to spread the influence of graffiti and rap music
beyond its early foundations in the Bronx. It was also, however, the
last wave of true bombing before the Transit Authority made graffiti
eradication a priority. The MTA (Metro Transit Authority) began to
repair yard fences, and remove graffiti consistently, battling the surge
of graffiti artists. With the MTA combating the artists by removing
their work it often led many artists to quit in frustration, as their
work was constantly being removed. It was also around this time that the
established art world started becoming receptive to the graffiti culture
for the first time since Hugo Martinez’s Razor Gallery in the early
1970s.
Spread of graffiti culture
In 1979, graffiti artist Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy were given a
gallery opening in Rome by art dealer Claudio Bruni. For many outside of
New York, it was their first encounter with the art form. Fab 5 Freddy's
friendship with Debbie Harry influenced Blondie's single "Rapture"
(Chrysalis, 1981), the video to which would also offer many their first
glimpse of a depiction of elements of graffiti in hip hop culture, as
would Charlie Ahearn's independently released fiction film Wild Style
(Wild Style, 1982), and the early PBS documentary Style Wars (1983). Hit
songs "The Message" and "Planet Rock" (both 1982) contributed to a
growing interest outside New York in all aspects of hip hop. Fab 5
Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part
of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983. Hollywood also paid attention,
consulting writers like PHASE 2 as it depicted the culture and gave it
international exposure in movies like Beat Street (Orion, 1984).
New York decline
Just as the culture was spreading outside New York and overseas, the
cultural aspect of graffiti in New York was said to be deteriorating
almost to the point of extinction. The rapid decline in writing was due
to several factors. The streets became more dangerous due to the
burgeoning crack epidemic, legislation was underway to make penalties
for graffiti artists more severe, and restrictions on paint sale and
display made racking (stealing) materials difficult. Above all, the MTA
greatly increased their anti-graffiti budget. Many favored painting
sites became heavily guarded, yards were patrolled, newer and better
fences were erected, and buffing of pieces was strong, heavy, and
consistent. As a result of subways being harder to paint, more writers
went into the streets, which is now, along with commuter trains and box
cars, the most prevalent form of writing.
Many graffiti artists, however, chose
to see the new problems as a challenge rather than a reason to quit. A
downside to these challenges was that the artists became very
territorial of good writing spots, and strength and unity in numbers
became increasingly important. This was probably the most violent era in
graffiti history—artists who chose to go out alone were often beaten and
robbed of their supplies. Some of the mentionable graffiti artists from
this era were Blade, Dondi, Seen and Skeme. This was stated to be the
end for the casual NYC subway graffiti artists, and the years to follow
would be populated by only what some consider the most "die hard"
artists. People often found that making graffiti around their local
areas was an easy way to get caught so they traveled to different areas.
New York 1985–1989
The years between 1985 and 1989 became known as the "die hard" era.
A last shot for the graffiti artists of this time was in the form of
subway cars destined for the scrap yard. With the increased security,
the culture had taken a step back. The previous elaborate "burners" on
the outside of cars were now marred with simplistic marker tags which
often soaked through the paint.
By mid-1986 the MTA and the CTA were
winning their "war on graffiti," and the population of active graffiti
artists diminished. As the population of artists lowered so did the
violence associated with graffiti crews and "bombing." Roof tops also
were being the new billboards for some 80's writers. Some notable
graffiti artists of this era were Cope2, Ja, Zephyr, Sane Smith, and T-Kid.
New York Clean Train Movement era
The current era in graffiti is characterized by a majority of
graffiti artists moving from subway or train cars to "street galleries."
The Clean Train Movement started in May, 1989, when New York attempted
to remove all of the subway cars found with graffiti on them out of the
transit system. Because of this, many graffiti artists had to resort to
new ways to express themselves. Much controversy arose among the streets
debating whether graffiti should be considered an actual form of art.
During this period many graffiti
artists had taken to displaying their works in galleries and owning
their own studios. This practice started in the early 1980s with artists
such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, who started out tagging locations with his
signature SAMO (Same Old Shit), and Keith Haring, who was also able to
take his art into studio spaces.
In some cases, graffiti artists had
achieved such elaborate graffiti (especially those done in memory of a
deceased person) on storefront gates that shopkeepers have hesitated to
cover them up. In the Bronx after the death of rapper Big Pun, several
murals dedicated to his life appeared virtually overnight; similar
outpourings occurred after the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac
Shakur, Big L, and Jam Master Jay.
Commercialization and entrance into
mainstream pop culture
With the popularity and
legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In
2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and
San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace
symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace,
Love, and Linux." However due to illegalities some of the "street
artists" were arrested and charged with vandalism, and IBM was fined
more than $120,000 for punitive and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was
launched by Sony in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los
Angeles and Miami in order to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In
this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign,
Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a
collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a
skateboard, a paddle or a rocking horse."
Along with the commercial growth has
come the rise of video games also depicting graffiti, usually in a
positive aspect – for example, the Jet Set Radio series (2000-2003)
tells the story of a group of teens fighting the oppression of a
totalitarian police force that attempts to limit the graffiti artists'
freedom of speech. In plotlines mirroring the negative reaction of
non-commercial artists to the commercialization of the artform by
companies like IBM (and, later, Sony itself) the Rakugaki Ōkoku series
(2003-2005) for Sony's PlayStation 2 revolves around an anonymous hero
and his magically imbued-with-life graffiti creations as they struggle
against an evil king who only allows art to be produced which can
benefit him. Following the original roots of modern graffiti as a
political force came another game title, Marc Eckō's Getting Up:
Contents Under Pressure (2006), featuring a story line involving
fighting against a corrupt city and its oppression of free speech, as in
the Jet Set Radio series.
Other games which feature graffiti
include Bomb the World (2004), an online graffiti simulation created by
graffiti artist Klark Kent where users can virtually paint trains at 20
locations worldwide, and Super Mario Sunshine (2002), in which the hero,
Mario must clean the city of graffiti left by the villain, Bowser Jr. in
a plotline which evokes the successes of the Anti-Graffiti Task Force of
New York's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (a manifestation of "broken window
theory") or those of the "Graffiti Blasters" of Chicago's Mayor Richard
M. Daley.
Numerous other non-graffiti-centric video games allow the player to
produce graffiti (such as the Half-Life series, the Tony Hawk's series,
The Urbz: Sims in the City, and Rolling). Many other titles contain
in-game depictions of graffiti (such as The Darkness, Double Dragon 3:
The Rosetta Stone, NetHack, Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked, The World
Ends With You, The Warriors, Just Cause, Portal, various examples of
Virtual Graffiti, etc.). There also exist a host of games where the term
"graffiti" is used as a synonym for "drawing" (such as Yahoo! Graffiti,
Graffiti, etc.).
Marc Ecko, an urban clothing designer,
has been an advocate of graffiti as an art form during this period,
stating that "Graffiti is without question the most powerful art
movement in recent history and has been a driving inspiration throughout
my career."
Keith Haring was another well-known
graffiti artist who brought Pop Art and graffiti to the commercial
mainstream. In the 1980s, Haring opened his first Pop Shop: a store that
offered everyone access to his works—which until then could only be
found spray-painted on city walls. Pop Shop offered commodities like
bags and t-shirts. Haring explained that, "The Pop Shop makes my work
accessible. It's about participation on a big level, the point was that
we didn't want to produce things that would cheapen the art. In other
words, this was still art as statement".
Global developments
South America
There is a significant graffiti
tradition in South America most especially in Brazil. Within Brazil, Sao
Paulo is generally considered to be the current centre of inspiration
for many graffiti artists worldwide.
Brazil "boasts a unique and
particularly rich graffiti scene...[earning] it an international
reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration." Graffiti
"flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities." Artistic
parallels "are often drawn between the energy of Sao Paulo today and
1970s New York." The "sprawling metropolis," of Sao Paulo has "become
the new shrine to graffiti;" Manco alludes to "poverty and
unemployment...[and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's
marginalised peoples," and to "Brazil's chronic poverty," as the main
engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture." In world terms,
Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and
taxes change frequently." Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a
very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social
tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban
sport for the disenfranchised," that is South American graffiti art.
Middle East
Graffiti in the Middle East is
slowly emerging, with pockets of taggers operating in the various
'Emirates' of the United Arab Emirates, in Israel, and in Iran. The
major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal
writers in the city with photo coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works
on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine PingMag has interviewed
A1one and featured photos of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has
become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin
Wall. Many graffiti artists in Israel come from other places around the
globe, such as JUIF, from Los Angeles, and DEVIONE from London. The
religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman
Meuman") is commonly seen graffitied around Israel.
Modern experimentation
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and
technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use
of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes as new media for
graffiti writers. The Italian artist Kaso is pursuing regenerative
graffiti through experimentation with abstract shapes and deliberate
modification of previous graffiti artworks.
Characteristics of common graffiti
Some of the most common styles
of graffiti have their own names. A "tag" is the most basic writing of
an artist's name in either spray paint or marker. A graffiti writer's
tag is his or her personalized signature. "Tagging" is often the example
given when opponents of graffiti refer to vandalism, as they use it to
label all acts of graffiti writing (it is by far the most common form of
graffiti). Tags can contain subtle and sometimes cryptic messages, and
might incorporate the artist's initials or other letters. As well as the
graffiti name, some artists include the year that they completed that
tag next to the name, so that Tox, an artist from London, becomes Tox03,
Tox04, etc. John Tsombikos claimed subsequent to his arrest that his "Borf"
tag campaign, which gained recognition for its prevalence in Washington,
D.C., was in memory of a deceased friend.
Another form is the "throw-up," also
known as a "fill-in," which is normally painted very quickly with two or
three colors, sacrificing aesthetics for speed. Throw-ups can also be
outlined on a surface with one color. A "piece" is a more elaborate
representation of the artist's name, incorporating more stylized "block"
or "bubble" letters, using three or more colors. This of course is done
at the expense of timeliness and increases the likelihood of the artist
getting caught. A "blockbuster" is a large piece done simply to cover a
large area solidly with two contrasting colours, sometimes with the
whole purpose of blocking other "writers" from painting on the same
wall.
A more complex style is "wildstyle", a form of graffiti involving
interlocking letters, arrows, and connecting points. These pieces are
often harder to read by non-graffiti artists as the letters merge into
one another in an often undecipherable manner. A "roller" is a "fill-in"
that intentionally takes up an entire wall, sometimes with the whole
purpose of blocking other "writers" from painting on the same wall. Some
artists also use stickers as a quick way to "get-up". While critics from
within graffiti culture consider this lazy and a form of cheating,
stickers can be quite detailed in their own right, and are often used in
conjunction with other materials. Sticker tags are commonly done on
blank postage stickers, or indeed anything with an adhesive side to it.
Stencils are made by drawing an image
onto a piece of cardboard or tougher versions of paper, then cut with a
razor blade. What is left is then just simply sprayed-over, and if done
correctly, a perfect image is left. Many graffiti artists believe that
doing blockbusters or even complex wildstyles involves too great an
investment of time to justify the practice. Doing wildstyle can take
(depending on experience and size) three hours to several days. Another
graffiti artist can go over that piece in a matter of minutes with a
bubble fill-in. This was exemplified by the writer "CAP" in the
documentary Style Wars, who, other writers complain, ruins pieces with
his quick throw ups. This became known as "capping" and is often done
when there is "beef", conflict between writers.
Uses
Theories on the use of graffiti
by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the
Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism in 1961. Many
contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic
value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art.
According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and
in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of
social emancipation or in the achievement of a political goal.
The murals of Belfast and of Los
Angeles offer another example of official recognition. In times of
conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and
self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically and/or
racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective
tools in establishing dialog and thus of addressing cleavages in the
long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by Graffiti
reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over
the GDR.
Many artists involved with Graffiti also are concerned with the similar
activity of Stencilling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of
one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognised while exhibiting and
publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the
ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and urban Britain in the early 2000s,
graffiti artist Mathangi Arulpragasam a.k.a. M.I.A. has also become
known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music
videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun," and her cover art.
Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London
in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, having herself
become a muse for other graffiti artists/painters worldwide in cities
including Seville. Graffiti artist John Fekner, called "caption writer
to the urban environment, adman for the opposition" by writer Lucy
Lippard , was involved in direct art interventions within New York
City's decaying urban environment in the mid-seventies through the
eighties. Fekner is known for his word installations targeting social
and political issues, stenciled on buildings throughout New York.
In the UK, Banksy is the most
recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his
identity secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork can be seen
around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, though he has
painted pictures around the world, including the Middle East, where he
has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical
images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with
an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other
side. A number of exhibitions have also taken place since 2000, and
recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money.
Radical and political
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels
against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners
often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can
express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of
resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band
Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist,
feminist and anti-consumerist messages around the London Underground
system during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part
of the punk scene. The city was covered with names as 'De Zoot', 'Vendex'
and 'Dr Rat'. To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started
called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s
there already was a vibrant graffiti culture.
The developments of graffiti art which
took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or
"underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more
overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming or
tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the
artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts,
since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms
except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s a growing number
of artists are switching to non-permanent paints for a variety of
reasons -- but primarily because is it difficult for the police to
apprehend and for the courts to sentence or even convict a person for a
protest that is as fleeting and less intrusive than marching in the
streets. In some communities, such impermanent works survive longer than
works created with permanent paints because the community views the work
in the same vein as that of the civil protestor who marches in the
street -- such protest are impermanent but effective nevertheless.
In some areas where a number of artist
share the impermance ideal, there grows an informal competition. That
is, the length of time that a work escapes destruction is related to the
amount of respect the work garners in the community. A crude work that
deserves little respect would invariably be removed immediately. The
most talented artist might have works last for days.
Artists whose primary object is to
assert control over property -- and not primarily to create of an
expressive work of art, political or otherwise -- resist switching to
impermanent paints.
Contemporary practitioners,
accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some
individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to
politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences forced
onto them as a means of further protest.
The practices of anonymous groups and
individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree
with each others' practices. Anti-capitalist art group the Space
Hijackers, for example, did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction
between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political
imagery.
On top of the political aspect of
graffiti as a movement, political groups and individuals may also use
graffiti as a tool to spread their point of view. This practice, due to
its illegality, has generally become favoured by groups excluded from
the political mainstream (e.g. far-left or far-right groups) who justify
their activity by pointing out that they do not have the money – or
sometimes the desire – to buy advertising to get their message across,
and that a "ruling class" or "establishment" control the mainstream
press, systematically excluding the radical/alternative point of view.
This type of graffiti can seem crude; for example fascist supporters
often scrawl swastikas and other Nazi images.
One innovative form of graffiti that
emerged in the UK in the 1970s was devised by the Money Liberation Front
(MLF), essentially a loose affiliation of underground press writers such
as the poet and playwright Heathcote Williams and magazine editor and
playwright Jay Jeff Jones. They initiated the use of paper currency as a
medium for counterculture propaganda, overprinting banknotes, usually
with a John Bull printing set. Although short lived the MLF was
representative of London’s Ladbroke Grove centered alternative and
literary community of the period. The area was also a scene of
considerable anti-establishment and humorous street graffiti much of it
also produced by Williams.
Both sides of the conflict in Northern
Ireland produce political graffiti. As well as slogans, Northern Irish
political graffiti include large wall paintings, referred to as murals.
Along with the flying of flags and the painting of kerb stones, the
murals serve a territorial purpose. Artists paint them mostly on house
gables or on the Peace Lines, high walls that separate different
communities. The murals often develop over an extended period and tend
to stylisation, with a strong symbolic or iconographic content. Loyalist
murals often refer to historical events dating from the war between
James II and William III in the late 17th century, whereas Republican
murals usually refer to the more recent troubles.
Decorative and high art
A 2006 exhibition at the
Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New
York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early '80s with
the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
It displayed 22 works by New York
graffiti artists, including Crash, Daze and Lady Pink. In an article
about the exhibition in Time Out Magazine, curator Charlotta Kotik said
that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their
assumptions about graffiti. Terrance Lindall, an artist and executive
director of the Williamsburg Art and Historic Center, said regarding
graffiti and the exhibition:
"Graffiti is revolutionary, in my
opinion," he says, "and any revolution might be considered a crime.
People who are oppressed or suppressed need an outlet, so they write on
walls—it’s free."
In Australia, art historians have
judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them
firmly within visual art. Oxford University Press's art history text
Australian Painting 1788-2000 concludes with a long discussion of
graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the
work of several Australian practitioners.
Government responses
North America
Graffiti advocates perceive graffiti as a method of reclaiming
public space or to display one's art form, their opponents regard it as
an unwanted nuisance, or as expensive vandalism requiring repair of the
vandalized property. Graffiti can be viewed as a "quality of life"
issue, and its detractors suggest that the presence of graffiti
contributes to a general sense of squalor and a heightened fear of
crime.
In 1984, the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti
Network (PAGN) was created to combat the city's growing concerns about
gang-related graffiti. PAGN led to the creation of the Mural Arts
Program, which replaced often hit spots with elaborate, commissioned
murals that were protected by a city ordinance, increasing fines and
penalties for anyone caught defacing a mural.
The Philadelphia Subway line also
features a long standing example of the art form by way of the broad and
spring garden stop, along the broad & ridge (to 8th and market) line.
Which while still existing, has long been quarantined, and has featured
tags and murals that have existed for upwards of 15years.
Advocates of the "broken window theory"
believe that this sense of decay encourages further vandalism and
promotes an environment leading to offenses that are more serious.
Former New York City mayor Ed Koch's vigorous subscription to the broken
window theory promoted an aggressive anti-graffiti campaign in New York
in the early eighties, resulting in "the buff"; a chemical wash for
trains that dissolved the paint off. New York City has adopted a
strenuous zero tolerance policy ever since. However, throughout the
world, authorities often, though not always, treat graffiti as a minor
nuisance crime, though with widely varying penalties. Roof tops became
the mainstream after the trains died out.
In 1995 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New
York set up the Anti-Graffiti Task Force, a multi-agency initiative to
combat the perceived problem of graffiti vandals in New York City. This
began a crackdown on "quality of life crimes" throughout the city, and
one of the largest anti-graffiti campaigns in U.S. history. That same
year Title 10-117 of the New York Administrative Code banned the sale of
aerosol spray-paint cans to children under 18. The law also requires
that merchants who sell spray-paint must lock it in a case or display
cans behind a counter, out of reach of potential shoplifters. Violations
of the city's anti-graffiti law carry fines of $350 per count. Famous
NYC graffiti artist Zephyr wrote an opposing viewpoint to this law.
On January 1, 2006, in New York City,
legislation created by Councilmember Peter Vallone, Jr. attempted to
make it illegal for a person under the age of 21 to possess spray-paint
or permanent markers. The law prompted outrage by fashion and media
mogul Marc Ecko who sued Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Councilmember
Vallone on behalf of art students and legitimate graffiti artists. On
May 1, 2006, Judge George B. Daniels granted the plaintiffs' request for
a preliminary injunction against the recent amendments to the
anti-graffiti legislation, effectively prohibiting (on May 4) the New
York City Police Department from enforcing the restrictions. A similar
measure was proposed in New Castle County, Delaware in April 2006 and
was passed into law as a county ordinance in May 2006.
Chicago's mayor, Richard M. Daley
created the "Graffiti Blasters" to eliminate graffiti and gang-related
vandalism. The bureau advertises free cleanup within 24 hours of a phone
call. The bureau uses paints (common to the city's 'color scheme') and
baking-soda based solvents to remove some varieties of graffiti.
In 1992, an ordinance was passed in
Chicago that bans the sale and possession of spray paint, and certain
types of etching equipment and markers. The law falls under Chapter 8-4:
Public Peace & Welfare, Section 100: Vagrancy. The specific law
(8-4-130) makes graffiti an offense with a fine of no less than $500 per
incident, surpassing the penalty for public drunkenness, peddling, or
disruption of a religious service.
In 2005, the city of Pittsburgh
implemented a custom database-driven graffiti tracking system to build
and enhance evidence for prosecution of graffiti artist suspects by
linking tags to instances of graffiti. One of the first suspects to be
identified by the system as being responsible for significant graffiti
vandalism was Daniel Joseph Montano. He was dubbed "The King of
Graffiti" for having tagged close to 200 buildings in the city.
Europe
In Europe, community cleaning
squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon,
as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group damaged two prehistoric
paintings of Bisons in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French
village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel
Prize in archaeology.
In September 2006, the European
Parliament issued the European Commission to create urban environment
policies in order to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti,
animals' excrement and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music
systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003
became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the
Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero
tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the
spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint
to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use
of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that
real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its
often-portrayed 'cool' or 'edgy' image.
To back the campaign, 123 MPs
(including Prime Minister Tony Blair) signed a charter which stated:
Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do
all I can to rid our community of this problem. However, in the last
couple of years the British graffiti scene has been struck by
self-titled 'art terrorist' Banksy, who has revolutionized the style of
UK graffiti (bringing to the forefront stencils to aid the speed of
painting) as well as the content; making his work largely satirical of
the sociological state of cities, or the political climate of war, often
using monkeys and rats as motifs.
In the UK, city councils have the power
to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced
under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean
Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the
Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are
complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the
property isn't damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffiti artists
for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance
operation,[49] seven members of the DPM crew were convicted of
conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five
of them received prison sentences, ranging from 18 months to two years.
The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the
sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be
considered art or crime.
Some councils, like that at Stroud,
Gloucestershire provide approved areas round the town where graffiti
artists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks and
walls that might otherwise prove a target for the 'spray and run.'
Australia
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have
designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffiti artists. One
early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus
of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student
at the University to tag, advertise, poster and create "art". Advocates
of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet
encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without
worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing. Others
disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti
walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some
Local Government Areas around Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti
squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such gangs as BCW (Buffers
Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti
cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the
sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of
majority). However, a number of Local Governments in Victoria have taken
steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of
graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws
have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to $26,000 AUS and
two years in prison. The fine for carrying a spray that you cannot give
a legal reason for carrying is $550 AUS.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city
of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as
Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers,
wedding photography and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The
Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street are as a major
attraction. Everything including; Sticker Art, Poster Art, Stencil Art
and Wheatpasting can be found in many places throughout the city.
Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote,
Brunswick, St. Kilda and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is
prominent. As you move further away from the city, mostly along suburban
train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international
artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early
2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art
piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the
respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it.
Asia
In China, graffiti began with Mao Zedong in the 1920s who used
revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanise the
country's communist revolution. Mao holds the record for the longest
piece of graffiti, which contains 4000 characters criticising his
teachers and the state of Chinese society.
Graffiti is still in its infancy in
developing countries such as India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan.
Graffiti made the news in 1993, over an
incident in Singapore involving several expensive cars found
spray-painted. The police arrested a student from Singapore American
School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him and subsequently charged him with
vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty for vandalizing the car in addition to
stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Singapore Vandalism Act, originally
passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court
sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of 3,500 Singaporean
dollars (US $2,233 or GB £1,450), and a caning. The New York Times ran
several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called
on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests.
Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency,
Fay's caning took place in Singapore on May 5, 1994. Fay had originally
received a sentence of six lashes of the cane, but the then President of
Singapore Ong Teng Cheong agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four
lashes.
