From Graffiti to Street Art

Drawing and writing on walls has been part of human nature since the cave men, which was some 40,000 years ago. Cave paintings are still found that document their lifestyle and culture, but it is unknown as to why these were made. Some theories of why they did it are to communicate with others or it has a ceremonial or religious purpose. This links quite closely to why people create street art and graffiti in the present and recent history. Commonly shown paintings were hunting, fights and the families drawn in the stick figure style that is used today. They were created with pigment, which would probably be from fruits or blood. It has been found on Ancient Egyptian monuments and has even been found preserved on walls in Pompeii.

Street art started out as vandalism, in Philadelphia during the 1960’s onwards. The ‘taggers started out by writing ‘Bird Lives’ on walls. Bird/Charlie Parker was a musician who had died in 1955. After the vandalism started in Philadelphia, the movement jumped over to New York. It is stated in the documentary ‘Bomb It’ that the ‘taggers’ were unhappy with the way that their city was, and that their only conclusion was to trash it completely to get the problem recognized and changed. The ‘taggers’ generally wrote their name/nickname and their street or house number as their tag. Examples of this, are ‘TAKI 183’ and ‘TRACY 168’, which can be seen in the documentary ‘Bomb It’. These two particular tags also gained a lot of media attention. Their main places to hit, was subway cars, and then subway tunnels, they chose subway cars as this meant that their vandalism could be seen all over New York. In 1974, writers like TRACY 168 started to include illustrations full of scenery and cartoon characters along with the bubble lettering. From this Graffiti started to change and develop into street art.

Street art is a way to portray people’s opinions and art. Most of the opinions seen nowadays are on politics, the environment and society and social issues. Examples of these are black lives, gay rights, gender equality global warming, who is in power, terrorists, religion, the economy and many more. Street art has progressed from tags such as ‘TAKI 183’ with simple two colour lettering to large pieces of art on the side of buildings from artists like Banksy, Shephard Fairey and Ben Eine which can be linked to different styles of art (e.g. abstract, fine art, graphic design, etcetera), a variety of complimenting colours, and it is created in a variety of different ways. For street artists, the possibilities are endless. “Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they're having a piss.” ― Banksy, Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall. This quote from graffiti artist Banksy gives a slight insight toward the intention of the world’s most famous graffiti artist.

Gang culture and graffiti are also closely linked. People in gangs used to tag walls, bus stations and public property to let other gangs know what is their territory. This is seen as intimidating by many people, generally those who are vulnerable or those who are intimidated by it. Sometimes the graffiti can be racist or discriminating to people, which would make people fear for their safety. Another aspect of this is that drug dealers also used to graffiti places to show people what their territory was. This is affiliated with the gang culture as many gangs did sell drugs. The graffiti was to make other gangs back off from territory that wasn’t theirs.

In a BBC news article, it stated that graffiti was costing Londoners £100m. In a study, it found that children from ALL social backgrounds have been found contributing to that bill. A report from the British Transport Police says; “it had been considered that perpetrators would have been from deprived backgrounds, but there is evidence that individuals from ‘better-off’ families are also turning to graffiti”. This would annoy a lot of members of the public, as the taxes that they are paying toward improving their society and community for the better, are just being spent on cleaning up vandalism that is unwanted.There is an array of different types of graffiti. The simplest form is individual markings (slogans, slurs, political statements). This type of graffiti can be found in bathrooms, bus stations

and is usually handwritten. It can contain random nonsense, or a bold political statement that is quite minimalistic for the graffiti scene, which would contrast

with the bold bright murals that portrays a artistic features and has taken time and imagination to complete from scratch. Another form of this is a tag (i.e. your name/nickname). The more accepted form of Street Art is commissioned murals, for the enhancement and beautification of a place, as this is legal and the property owner has actually wanted this piece on their building for marketing and aesthetical purposes. Commissioned street art also generally is less controversial as generally it would just be a drawing of something that doesn’t question anything to do with subjects that are disputable and have split opinions (e.g. gay rights, gender equality, politics, etcetera).

Graffiti can also be dangerous. A danger of graffiti would be road accidents. This is because if someone spray paints over a one-way street sign, or traffic lights it could cause serious injury to others (e.g. cars crashing, traffic jams), which would cause chaos on the roads and disrupt people’s lives. Politicians have also referred to graffiti as a ‘gateway’ crime, which means that a graffitist could get involved in gangs, drugs, and many other serious crimes that could endanger themselves and people around them. However, this may just be a stereotype from the past and can only be seen in the minority of modern day gang culture.

Many street artists have stated that they do not want to change the definition of an artwork. Instead, they want to question the existing the environment with its own language. Some who graffiti, believe that the public space needs to be more exciting, others want to leave their mark on the world. It is also been stated that people graffiti to rebel from the artistic norms, and to try and change people’s perspectives and outlooks on modern art. The entire concept of street art is to show people that your art doesn’t have to be good to be framed in a gallery, and to allow people to view the art in an environment that is informal which contrasts with the formal and ritualistic atmosphere of an art gallery such as the London Art Gallery. “For me, there has always been a disconnect with the sort of elitist structure of the high-art world – and my distaste fir that is at odds with my feeling that art should aspire to do great things.” – Shephard Fairey.

There are contrasting opinions on whether street art is art or if it is vandalism. This comes from the different classes of people, such as business people, who may believe that it does not look professional or relevant in any way. With different people’s opinions it is difficult to decide if graffiti should be legal or not as there would always be somebody who believes it should be illegal There is, however, a grey area, where people have mixed views on what actually makes it street art and what makes it vandalism. Tagging your name on a bus stop? Not street art. A mural on somebody’s beliefs (e.g. gay rights, equal rights, political views) with artistic features? Street art.

Throughout the years, graffiti has also closely linked with the hip-hop/rap scene. As the hip-hop/rap genre started to kick off, graffiti was on the rise. People who were writing graffiti also listened to up and coming hip-hop/rap music, which makes it inevitable that the two would collide. Graffiti has been understood as a visual expression of rap music. The punk scene was also linked to graffiti. This is down to popular bands using some aspects of the graffiti style in their album artwork. An

example of this is the UK anarcho-punk band Crass who used stencil like images on their releases. An American example of this is the band Black Flag, who used a stencil like logo which is still recognized today. Another reason why graffiti is linked to the punk scene is because of the anarchistic ways. Graffiti is a form of rebelling from societies normalities, and the punk values consisted of rebelling from society’s normalities.

Graffiti is a way for people to express themselves, and let their community (or another) know their beliefs/views on the world, in an informal environment. It

livens up the community, gives it colour and character instead of drab building walls. “Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better

place. Some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place.” – Banksy. Graffiti also allows those who may not fit in with the overall desire community that the majority tries to create. The public space is our space, so we should be able to decorate it in an artistic way. It’s a freedom of speech; many graffiti artists want to display their views and beliefs in their community. This may be to make people question how their community is working, or show their passion/aggression towards something that may have happened.

Certain graffiti can intimidate and scare members of the society (e.g. – gang graffiti, discriminatory graffiti, explicit graffiti, etcetera). In certain places, graffiti ruins the formal and professional vibe that some places like to give off (e.g. Businesses, banks, schools, colleges, universities). Cleaning up graffiti has cost the government over £100m, which could be spent on helping others, and help to improve our community. Graffiti to some is also seen as an eyesore, this is typically the tags from people that is just a word and has no meaning. On http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-graffiti-be-legal it states: “ I don't understand why anyone would say it should be legal. Graffiti is visual clutter. Some of it might be attractive at times but you can't control what people will spray paint on our public walls. People have a right to choose what they see, and graffiti takes away that right. It can sometimes be extremely explicit.” This argument backs up my statement as some people may not want graffiti in the places that they live or work at/near.

In conclusion, I believe that Graffiti should be legal (to a certain extent). By this, I mean that discriminatory graffiti that may oppress people, or intimidate people should not be allowed. Tagging your name on a wall, would be under not allowed as this just makes the space look tacky. Certain types of graffiti should be legalized as I believe that this would brighten up the community, and help other social groups feel that they belong in the community. Street Art is also becoming a lot more socially acceptable. An example of this is the Northern Quarter, as street artists get commissioned to create a piece of art on a company’s building. Graffiti with explicit language, or images should be illegalized as this would be seen by people under the age of 18, which parents would not be happy about. Legalizing certain types of graffiti would also save the government a lot of money, which could be spent on improving our society for the better.

Bibliography Documentary ‘Bomb it’ – 2007 (Director Jon Reiss) British Transport Police statement on BBC website (found on www.bbc.com) Banksy quote 1, Banging your head against a brick wall

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/28811.Banksy Shephard Fairey Quote

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/shepard_fairey.html Banksy quote 2 http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/graffiti Links to music - http://www.widewalls.ch/20th-century-the-rise-of-graffiti/hip-

hop-punk-graffiti/ Debate quote http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-graffiti-be-

legal