Oneday Old Graffiti
Love it or hate, graffiti has become a visual part of our suburban and urban landscape. Mostly people hate it, I can understand that. It has the capacity to incense, incite and infuriate those against whom this form of art is practiced without their say so. Its ‘perpetrators’ cross permitted boundaries of ownership with seemingly blatant disregard.
These are no salad days (for the benefit of those younger readers among us the term is an idiomatic expression, referring to a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a younger person, in this context I use it sparingly) for irate homeowners that wake to the defacement of their property, business owners faced with regular, often prohibitive clean up costs and Local Government Councils with similar increasing bills on a much larger scale!
“Graffiti art originated in the late 1960’s, and has been developing ever since. However, it is not readily accepted as being art like those works that are found in a gallery or a museum. It’s not strictly denied the status of genuine art because of a lack of form or other base aesthetic elements. Most of the opposition to graffiti art is due to its location and bold, unexpected, and unconventional presentation, but its presentation and often illegal location does not necessarily disqualify it as art.
However, some forms of graffiti can be accepted as art. This type of graffiti is known as graffiti art, subway art, or spray can art. The arguments of vandalism and unconventional presentation as negating the ability of some graffiti to be art is usurped by an explanation of those properties apparent in some forms of graffiti that do qualify it, aesthetically, as art.
The origins of graffiti go back to the beginnings of human, societal living. Graffiti has been found on uncovered, ancient, Egyptian monuments, and graffiti even was preserved on walls in Pompeii. Graffiti is the plural form of the Italian word grafficar. In plural, grafficar signifies drawings, markings, patterns, scribbles, or messages that are painted, written, or carved on a wall or surface.
Grafficar also signifies “to scratch” in reference to different wall writings ranging from “cave paintings”, bathroom scribbles, or any message that is scratched on walls. In reference to present day graffiti, the definition is qualified by adding that graffiti is also any unsolicited marking on a private or public property that is usually considered to be vandalism.
There are various forms of graffiti. One of the simplest forms is that of individual markings such as slogans, slurs, or political statements. Examples of this type of graffiti commonly are found in bathrooms or on exterior surfaces, and this graffiti is usually handwritten. Another simple form is that of the tag which is a fancy, scribble-like writing of one’s name or nick-name. That is, tag signifies one’s name or nick-name.
Both the tag or individual mark have little or no aesthetic appeal. While they might suggest a flair or style of writing, these forms fail to qualify as example of superb graffiti art because of a lack of aesthetic qualities and inability to produce a maximal aesthetic feeling in the viewer. In fact, the tag or individual mark is not produced for artistic purposes. It is basically a means to indicate the writer’s presence, i.e., the age old statement of “I was here.”
Gang markings of territory also fit the definition of graffiti, and they mainly consists of tags and messages that provide “news” of happenings in the neighborhood. Murals for community enhancement and beautification are also a form of graffiti even though they are not usually thought of this way because most murals are commissioned. These are more colorful and complex. They take considerable amount of skill to complete, and murals can be done in a graffiti art style or a traditional pictorial scene.
The last form of graffiti is graffiti art which is the creative use of spraypaint to produce an artwork that is graffiti or done in a graffiti-like style. Modern graffiti art originated in New York City, and it was known first as “New York Style” graffiti. This art form began in the late 1960’s when teens used permanent markers to tag or write their names, followed by the number of the street on which they lived, in subway cars. This trend originated with the appearance of “Taki 183” which was the tag of a Greek American boy named Demitrius.
Tagging soon became a way to get one’s name known throughout the city. However, it should be noted that tagging appeared in Philadelphia before New York. The monikers, “Cornbread” and “Top Cat” were well known in Philadelphia, and when Top Cat’s style appeared in New York, it was dubbed as “Broadway Style” for its long skinny lettering.”
We’re really, if you’ll excuse the pun, just scratching the surface of this subject matter so let’s take a look tomorrow at what separates the taggers from the artists. Here in New Zealand legislation has been passed to combat the rise and spread of graffiti. So here’s the thing, we may not want to understand it BUT graffiti exists.
Let’s not bury our heads in the sand. To a greater or lesser degree, we all follow trends of one kind or another, knowing where graffiti came from is a good start in my books to thinking through issues of how we might minimise its divisive effects on an entire community.
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* This is 1 of a 6 part blog. The NEXT blog is entitled ‘Twodays Old Graffiti’
