I really like the theme of your blog, about urban graffiti. I also agree with your ideas about graffiti being different. I really agree with your idea of graffiti as a space to encourage public expression and communication. I think it’s fascinating. I think graffiti comes from the most direct inner voice, with bright colours, resounding voices and individuality. It is a sign of a city that is young, passionate and restless, restless and rebellious, and you can disagree with it, but you can’t ignore it. And graffiti art can also be used as a form of decoration and high art. Back in the early 1980s, the first art galleries to showcase graffiti artists to the public were Fashion Moda, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery in the Bronx in Manhattan’s East Village, and in Australia art historians have judged some local graffiti to be of sufficient creative merit to be firmly classified as art. The Oxford University Press art history text Australian Painting 1788-2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti’s key place in contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners. So if you look at the positive side graffiti art does provide a way for some people to express themselves, such as those who are more introverted and shy about expressing themselves. When I was at university, I used to see graffiti on blank walls on my campus, which gave our campus an artistic atmosphere and a platform for students to showcase their work. So where this graffiti art is done is also very important.
Morgan, Tiernan (6 August 2015). “35 Years After Fashion Moda, a Bronx Gallery Revisits the Landmark Space”. Hyperallergic. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
HODARA, SUSAN (23 March 2012). “When a South Bronx Collective Went International”. New York Times. Archived from the original on 2022-01-02. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
SAMUELS, TANYANIKA (15 February 2013). “The legacy of Fashion Moda, a shuttered art and performance space, to be spotlighted”. New York Daily News. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
Smith, Bernard William; Smith, Terry; Heathcote, Christopher (2001). Australian Painting 1788–2000. Oxford University Press
Graffiti and public art: Chalk and Cheese
Violence
Urban graffiti is Commonly seen as either street art or vandalism, thus through this lens cities perceive it as either artistic practice or a violation of the law. Governments often use street art campaigns to beautify economically devastated neighbourhoods. Street art action and graffiti action employed this way may be incontrovertibly violent. As described by Nancy Scheper Hughes in her study of the global south, the Invisible genocides of the peace times. In the examples of New Orleans and Detroit, the spray canister becomes a violent tool against inhabitants (Lennon, 2022). A tool used to drive up the value of real estate, bringing in a wealthier homogenous demographic. This gentrifying-action forced evacuation of a more diverse and multicultural people. However convincing this argument may seem, Urban designers and planners should resist using it to completely discard street art from our urban lives.
Out of place
If authorised by political power, governments use public art as a tool for place-branding, thereby stimulating consumption and a continuation of the status quo. We must therefore view graffiti as the ‘freeing’ alternative. As a platform for the political voice of the others, questioning the ideas of place ownership and place identity. The role of graffiti is also one of communication and expression of our human spirit (What does not fit in of it). For Douglas (1966), it is as ‘dirt out of place’. Graffiti not only abandons the idea of purity of public spaces but also authorised ‘symbolic meanings’ and ‘practices of power’ (Cresswell, 1992, Young, 2005). Therefore, graffiti must take place in spaces where they are uncalled for. If we agree with this premise, then we must not consider any forms of commissioned public art works or deliberately authorised forms of street paintings in the same category as graffiti.
Make space
In my design project I have proposed that blank walls and a few of the spaces designed for the local community would accommodate graffiti. My understanding and design intent is to develop a space that encourages public expression and communication. Particularly and potentially expressions that challenge the status quo. I strongly believe that as urban designers, we will create better spaces and a better world by enabling and promoting spaces with these conditions.
References
Cresswell, T. 1992. The crucial ‘where’ of graffiti, a geographical analysis of reactions to graffiti in New York. Environment & Planning D: Society & Space, 10: 329–344.
Lennon, J., 2022. Conflict graffiti. From revolution to gentrification. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (1966). Public Culture, 32(2), pp.415-422.
I really like the theme of your blog, about urban graffiti. I also agree with your ideas about graffiti being different. I really agree with your idea of graffiti as a space to encourage public expression and communication. I think it’s fascinating. I think graffiti comes from the most direct inner voice, with bright colours, resounding voices and individuality. It is a sign of a city that is young, passionate and restless, restless and rebellious, and you can disagree with it, but you can’t ignore it. And graffiti art can also be used as a form of decoration and high art. Back in the early 1980s, the first art galleries to showcase graffiti artists to the public were Fashion Moda, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery in the Bronx in Manhattan’s East Village, and in Australia art historians have judged some local graffiti to be of sufficient creative merit to be firmly classified as art. The Oxford University Press art history text Australian Painting 1788-2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti’s key place in contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners. So if you look at the positive side graffiti art does provide a way for some people to express themselves, such as those who are more introverted and shy about expressing themselves. When I was at university, I used to see graffiti on blank walls on my campus, which gave our campus an artistic atmosphere and a platform for students to showcase their work. So where this graffiti art is done is also very important.
Morgan, Tiernan (6 August 2015). “35 Years After Fashion Moda, a Bronx Gallery Revisits the Landmark Space”. Hyperallergic. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
HODARA, SUSAN (23 March 2012). “When a South Bronx Collective Went International”. New York Times. Archived from the original on 2022-01-02. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
SAMUELS, TANYANIKA (15 February 2013). “The legacy of Fashion Moda, a shuttered art and performance space, to be spotlighted”. New York Daily News. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
Smith, Bernard William; Smith, Terry; Heathcote, Christopher (2001). Australian Painting 1788–2000. Oxford University Press
Hey MO! That is one interesting blog about using Graffiti as a tool for expression and rising voice about public issues. I liked your statement about commissioned street art not being the same as graffiti. I agree with your idea for the design of providing a space for this. I personally have implemented a similar strategy of provision of space for Graffiti in my design for a project in Ouseburn valley. My idea is to use Graffiti as a means of communication about a current rising public issue/event/news as a display.
You have spoken about the topic in such great depth that some might still wonder to figure the difference between street art and Graffiti. I am gonna speak about it here. Graffiti art as a term refers to images or text painted usually onto buildings, typically using spray paint. It has its origins in 1970s New York, when young people began to use spray paint to create images. Such graffiti can range from bright graphic images (wildstyle) to the stylised monogram (tag).
Street art is related to graffiti art in that it is created in public locations and is usually unsanctioned, but it covers a wider range of media and is more connected with graphic design. Where modern-day graffiti revolves around ‘tagging’ and text-based subject matter, street art is far more open. There are no rules in street art, so anything goes. However common materials and techniques include fly-posting (also known as wheat-pasting), stencilling, stickers, freehand drawing and projecting videos.
References:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/g/graffiti-art
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/street-art
https://nclurbandesign.org/cycle-your-way/