What’s the harm in a name?

Image

I’m renting a room in house I found on craigslist. It’s a standard character house without the modern demands of ensuite and open-concept living space. In my room the ceiling is at a slant, the window is painted shut and a name is scribbled on one of the walls, “Brady” or “Brody”.

It is small and harmless and stands for a personal connection him and a place. Not intended for public viewing, it was written in the privacy of what was once Brady or Brody’s room but was made accessible to the public through free advertising. More meaningful than a doodle and does not have the exposure to be a true tag or a territorial marker (Kan 2001) it is a connection between a person and a place. It lacks apparent artistic forethought or a political agenda and while there is the sense that it is claiming a space it lies outside of a greater system of territories contested between different groups. It instead can be viewed as a marker of the relationship between a person and a location, fulfilling a personal need to be associated and remembered by place.

 

Kan, Koon-Hwee

2001 Adolescents and Graffiti. Art Education 54(1):18-23

“Mind, Body, Soul”: Tagging for Peace

Street art/graffiti proves a continual outlet for expression of angst, defiance, and especially bravado/machismo for a younger demographic of people in the urban Vancouver area. Like any art form, though, this is not an act one can comfortably label, describe, or classify in cookie cutter terms, and never one which is necessarily shallow, driven purely by emotion, desire for mischief or as a fame-seeking venture.

Graffiti/street often functions as a symbol of resistance, public or personal identity, popular culture, (Whitehead 2004: 29) or, as previously mentioned, a challenge to socio-economic hierarchy and authority.  Yet, in other instances and in the appropriate venue, it can clearly be a source of soft and productive provocation, intellectual stimulation and even spiritual enlightenment.  Spirituality is often a shared thematic consideration of skilled veteran graf artists and it has been argued incorporating such themes helps artists derive a deeper and longer lasting sense of personal satisfaction from the art, regardless of one’s socio-economic status or religious affiliation (Noble 2004).

“Mental, Physical, Spiritual”…

"Don't mistake kindness for weakness. Mind, Body, Soul." 2004 - Acrow, Virus, Efex.

If you stroll down 41st near Collingwood you’ll find an almost block-long wall I photographed the other day, from which one piece/segment remains a prime example of the duality of street art just mentioned.  Luckily it has remained virtually untouched despite 8 years of direct exposure to Vancouver’s inhospitable weather and remains a supreme example of refined and thoughtful artistic expression.

By: James Cross

Works Cited
Noble, C.
      2004  City Space: A Semiotic and Visual Exploration of Graffiti and Public Space in
          Vancouver.  <http://www.graffiti.org/faq/noble_semiotic_warfare2004.html> Acc.
          Feb 9, 2012.
Whitehead, Jessie L.
      2004  Graffiti: The Use of the Familiar. Art Education. 57(6). pp. 25-32.

Profanity as Political Project


Downtown Eastside alleyway.

The ‘Fuck The Police’ (or ‘Fuck Tha Police’) slogan emerged from hip-hop group N.W.A.’s 1988 album Straight Outta Compton. Since then, the phrase has become one of the most ubiquitous and familiar forms of graffiti in the Western world. The phrase falls squarely into the graffiti-as-resistance category; a symbol of the frustration of young black men in particular with the oppressive and racist treatment they receive from law enforcement officers.

The aim of this resistance is four-fold: First, the act of writing it is itself an affront to the law. Second, the graffiti self-consciously proclaims its own ‘deviant’ nature, and leaves a record of its resistance for everyone to see. Third, the graffiti was also left anonymously, showing the threat that an invisible, marginalized enemy can pose to state power. Fourth, the marking of this graffiti on physical space is a method of claiming territory by groups or individuals who feel they have no territory of their own or feel their territory has been taken away by the arm of the state: the police (Ferrell 79). This final attempt is similar to tagging, in the sense that it marks a space and challenges the ownership of that space (Rafferty 77-78). However, ‘Fuck The Police’ graffiti goes one step further, turning that challenge into a political message against state violence and repression, and against racism.

– Maura Doherty

References:
Ferrell, Jeff. “Urban Graffiti: Crime, Control, and Resistance.” Youth & Society 27.1 (1995): 73-92. Print.

Rafferty, P. “Discourse on Difference: Street Art/Graffiti Youth.” Visual Anthropology Review 7.2 (1991): 77–84. Print.

Hidden Graffiti

The discussion of Graffiti often revolves around its public presence and the message that it carries with it, whether it be political, gang-related, or a social commentary.

However, graffiti also appears in places where it is not easily seen, and doesn’t actively work as a strong message. Well hidden under a North Vancouver Bridge is an improvised art gallery of graffiti that is constantly painted over and changed. It is situated near a popular hiking, trail, but most pieces are hidden behind the columns, which support the bridge, or deep in the shadows. In most cases, the artwork requires a good amount of hiking to even be seen.

In Jessie L. Whitehead’s article on the connection between students and art in a public space, he suggests that graffiti is a familiar occurrence in almost every city setting, and that it “offers an effective example of the connection between art and the world of everyday life”. In an area like North Vancouver, a large amount of the population consists of high school students, and graffiti can be seen as a more playful, quiet, well-hidden form of rebellion. Instead of on a popular building in the center of a city, these pieces are located in the wilderness, with very few viewers. This style can be seen as a personal expression, but not to the public as a whole. It is an expression only visible to those who know where to look.  This suggests that graffiti has a more personal use as well.

– by Charlotte Z
Graffiti: The Use of the Familiar
Jessie L. Whitehead
Art Education , Vol. 57, No. 6 (Nov., 2004), pp. 25-32

 

Conversation

Found in an alley north of Water street, behind popular shops and restaurants in Gastown the historic heart of Vancouver. Not far from here is the heart of the Downtown Eastside, home of “worst drug problem in Canada,” (Macdonald, 2009) where drug related deaths are 7 times the provincial average (Bruxton et.all, 2010).

Within the larger tag-bomb, a silver human-height signature that stretches several paces of wall, are a series of comments. These comments are written with marker, and look a lot like what you would find scrawled in a library cubby. What they represent is dialogue, materializing one of the key social issues of Vancouver’s urban space.

Brighenti describes walls as “part of the unquestioned here-and-now of a given urban environment,” tactical placement of visuals focus public attention (Brighenti, 2010). This wall is behind a row of chic furniture and tourist shops, a stark symbolic contrast to a localized homeless population. I didn’t have to travel far, but an effort was made- needed to be made, in order to find it.

                    

Graffiti is not particularly rampant in this city. Homelessness is. Both are a visible affront to public space, and generate similar, seemingly unending debates. Regardless of aesthetic appeal, this particular graffiti acts a medium on “the street,” as it materializes a dialogue of “the street.” This is not to say that anyone intended it to be such, authorial intent is impossible to determine in this context, thus it is read entirely as-is, in the here-and-now. What materializes is a visual conversation happening at the backstage of Vancouver’s most historic space: a powerful symbol for the affliction at the tip of the public tongue.

Bibliography.

Buxton, Jane A., Azar Mehrabadi, Emma Preston, Andrew Tu, and The Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (CCENDU) Vancouver-Site Committee.

2010   Local Drug Use Epidemiology: Lessons Learned and Implications for Broader  Comparisons. Contemporary Drug Problems 36 (Fall/Winter):447-458.

Brighenti, Andrea Mubi.

2010   At the Wall: Graffiti Writers, Urban Territoriality and the Public Domain. Space and Culture, 13(3): 315-332.

Macdonald, Nancy.

2009   Vancouver’s Drug Woes Escalate. Maclean’s, December 28, 2009: 25

So much for ‘Girl Power’

When we see graffiti-occupied walls, in the outside world, we might stop and look, deeming one as innovative and another irrelevant, but rarely will we grab a pen and scribble “this blows…learn to draw.” Yet, with anonymity comes liberty. (Case in point- the comment box on Justin Bieber’s YouTube channel)

Seeing this image in the girls’ washroom, my eyes were immediately drawn to the inscription “you’re still a slut” accompanied by a heart, likened to the obligatory “lol” we include in sarcastic texts. Without hesitation, I’m reminded of Mean Girls. The words beneath it, actually song lyrics, we can assume were written by a girl who just ended a relationship or was in the middle of a rocky one- feeling inhibited- seeking a safe sounding board. So much for female solidarity.

Mark Ferem claims (Dermakardijian 2008) that although some women’s latrinalia recognizes segregation within the female gender “such as bimbos, sorority girls etc”- and in this case sluts apparently- it ultimately expresses the conscious attitude necessary to inspire change. Women of the future, he contends, are gathering their thoughts on bathroom stalls, inciting the spirit of the collectively oppressed. But is this really the case today? When we think of YouTube and Facebook, the comments made- along with each like and dislike– seem to be focused on almost more than the original post itself. So, if one defines graffiti as artistic expression or cathartic release can the comments themselves, made about graffiti, be considered a part of the art itself?

Ashleigh Murphy

Source:

Dermakardijian, Ashley
2008 Beyond “A good bathroom read”: A Bakhtinian study of the gendered carnival            in women’s latrinalia. Masters dissertation, Stephen F. Austin State University.

Graffiti and Tagging as Acts of Social Litteracy

 

Taken near Broadway Station, Commercial Drive

Graffiti is often portrayed in a negative light, a destructive act that is seen as an attack on private property and public space. Though there are alternative portrayals of graffiti as fitting into dimensions of alternative art, these are often limited to murals or graffiti forms that fit into culturally understood forms of visual aesthetics. Tagging, however, is almost universally condemned as destructive and visually displeasing.

Tagging is defined as “a name or brief message written typically with spray paint or paint markers in a highly visible location in the community” (Mac Gillivray, Curwen 2007: 358). Though many interpret it as an act of visual pollution, it is in fact  an act of social litteracy, where taggers (often youth) situate themselves within a community of peers and communicate through the use of visual litteracy. It can be employed as an act of communication, with individuals reponding to each other through tags. Because taggers are not limited to specific geographical areas, the act of tagging as a tool for communication has the potential of transcending racial, socio-economic and political barriers, creating a liminal space that is, in a sense, open to, and accepting of, differences.

Finally, it is worth noting that one cannot truly appreciate graffiti while devaluating tagging, taking in consideration that tagging is an essential precursor to graffiti art. Through repetition and practice, taggers create a specific style and skills that becomes reconized within the community.

Isabelle Maurice-Hammond

Mac Gillivray, Laurie., Curwen, Margaret Sauceda. (2007). Tagging as a Social Litteracy Practice. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Litteracy. 50(5), 354-369.

Graffiti As A Means Of Regaining Control

Youths in underprivileged areas are able to attain a certain feeling of control over the space they live in through the use of graffiti. These artists use aliases on their wall paintings to identify themselves as the artist. Being recognized as an artist earns them a local reputation similar to the reputation achieved by members of local gangs. Graffiti artists are thus able to achieve local fame in spite of the socioeconomic disadvantage of their neighbourhoods.

 David Ley and Roman Cybriwsky argue that tagging is a way to garner a  community status and fame in underprivileged communities.(Ley and Cybriwsky, 1974:493) The authors quote a teenager who acknowledges taking up graffiti as a way to avoid gang life. (Ley and Cybriwsky, 1974:495) Graffiti is an economic and political expression and even if the public’s reaction is negative, a substantial number of people identify the graffiti with the artist. This can produce feelings of success which are impossible to obtain elsewhere because of the economic and gang problems which plague their communities.  The authors contend that graffiti allows people who do not have access to institutionalized outlets for their art, to express their creativity and claim some control over the space they inhabit. (Ley and Cybriwsky, 1974:494-495)  

 Young people in disadvantaged areas, whose reputations are advanced by graffiti, become important personalities in their local communities. This reputation leads to an improvement in the perception of their own self-worth thereby reducing or even eliminating the attraction of gang life and violence.

Patrick Armstrong

Works Cited:

Ley, David and Cybriwsky, Roman

1974  Urban Graffiti As Territorial Markers. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 64(4): 491- 505

Bush the Butcher

For the majority, of us, graffiti is a ubiquitous and familiar aspect of everyday life. We see names, opinions, calling cards, and artwork scribbled on everything from dumpsters to brick facades to bathroom stalls. Though it is often all lumped together and thought of as the work of bored or rebellious youth, this is not the case; graffiti has a slew of functions, ranging from simple artistic value to gang tags to a mode of communication. The later is very interesting, as “messages written in graffiti are often made without the social constraints that might otherwise limit free expression of political or controversial thought” (Alonso, 1998: 2). Because of the anonymity it presents, graffiti allows for a more honest form of correspondence. As a communication tool, this cross cultural form of representation may serve as a voice to marginalized people, or those that do not agree with dominant ideas, opinions etc.

The artist responsible for the attached Bush the Butcher picture is using graffiti as a form of political communication, posing the general public as an audience to convey his or her less than favourable feelings towards the prior President of the United States. Graffiti may work to push underground political or radical groups, or the viewpoints of dissatisfied individuals. Political graffiti is not uncommon and because of the nature of graffiti as hard to regulate and limit, as well as expandable, flexible, and ever changing, it is a perfect medium through which to announce political views or commentary, be they positive or negative.

By Hannah Kuyek

Alonso, Alex  1998 Urban Graffiti on the Urban Landscape. Western Geography
Graduate Conference  1-25

The Noncontroversial as Graffiti

Graffiti has historically been looked on as the pursuit of lower-class marginalized communities, a social ill (Dickinson 2008:34). It is often seen as ugly, unclean, or just not aesthetically pleasing (Dickinson 2008:40). The work I have chosen to share here speaks as a rebuttal to those presumptions. In this piece, a part of a larger effort entitled The New York Beautification Project, Ellen Harvey has brought elements of higher art forms to graffiti by recreating 18th-19th century oval landscapes in oil paints (Honigman & Harvey 2005:105). Harvey chose this style of graffiti because it is a noncontroversial signifier of art, a form understood by the majority as the quintessential artwork. While they were still illegally painted, these ovals were executed in a style that attempted to transcend the urge or need for public outcry that graffiti usually elicits. Harvey is playing with the idea of the idealized landscape brought to the wrong side of town, and found that the aesthetic characteristics of these pieces trumped their illegality, with most passersby legitimizing it by calling it art (Honigman & Harvey 2005:105-106).

Contrary to the lower-class, youth-perpetrated, masculinized picture of graffiti artists noted in Dickinson (2008), Ellen Harvey is a 30-something white female artist with a law degree (Honigman & Harvey 2005:103). This is relevant to her medium of choice – public spaces in New York City. Having studied law gives Harvey a unique appreciation (among artists) of property ownership, who is allowed to do what and where, and how society is structured. These issues consciously shape her work.

– Jessica Craighead

Honigman, Ana Finel, and Ellen Harvey                                                                         2005  Good Artist/Bad Artist: An Interview with Ellen Harvey. Art Journal 64(3):102-118.

Dickinson, Maggie                                                                                                      2008   The Making of Space, Race and Place:New York City’s War on Graffiti, 1970—the Present. Critique of Anthropology 28(1):27-45.

www.ellenharvey.info