Our city funds graffiti and fines owners of buildings which display unsanctioned graffiti to try to eliminate its presence. It has been argued that Graffiti acts “as its own form of erasure”, if it is sanctioned since the purpose of graffiti is to speak about the politics of nonconforming (Halsey and Perderick 2010:97). My problem with this view, is that if these forms of graffiti are at war than what is the prize, how is it won, and why does it excluded the viewers from its consideration.
In the streets I found examples of coexistence, and graffiti incorporated into the interior of a salon in close proximity. Research on these specific pieces yielded no information about the artists of the unsanctioned, and instead found city sponsored tours which appropriated these pieces. Thus, it was hard to understand the unsanctioned piece as a product of politics due to the lack of information provided, and their incorporation into businesses, but what these pieces did evoke was subjective empathy.
Similarly, there was no explanation of the sanctioned pieces or their location as being proximal to the unsanctioned. Additionally, I wondered whether the owners of the salon believed in the power of their Graffiti piece to take away from unsanctioned pieces. Ultimately, the complex layering of politics at work around these displays enhances the confusion started by a lack of information, allowing for only limited sets of meaning to emerge to the viewer based on the artistically conveyed themes and subsequently induced empathy for both types of pieces.
-By Alice Bardos
Graffiti 1
Graffiti 2) Same building as Graffiti 1, but different wall
Salon Graffiti
Eastside Mural Tour
2011 The City of Vancouver, Electronic Document,
http://muralsvancouver.ca/muralism/
Halsey, Mark and Ben Pederick
2010 The Game of Fame, Mural Graffiti, Erasure City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 14(1-2):82-98.
The City of Vancouver
2008 The City of Vancouver: Graffiti. Electronic Document,
http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/graffiti/