GRAFFITI

Graffiti (plural of graffito: "a graffito", but "these graffiti") are writing or drawings that
have been scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly on a wall or other surface, often
within public view.[1] Graffiti range from simple written words to elaborate wall
paintings, and they have existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to
Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.[2]

In modern times, paint (particularly spray paint) and marker pens have become the most
commonly used graffiti materials. In most countries, marking or painting property
without the property owner's permission is considered defacement and vandalism,
which is a punishable crime.

Graffiti may also express underlying social and political messages and a whole genre of
artistic expression is based upon spray paint graffiti styles. Within hip hop culture,
graffiti have evolved alongside hip hop music, b-boying, and other elements.[3]
Unrelated to hip-hop graffiti, gangs use their own form of graffiti to mark territory or to
serve as an indicator of gang-related activities.[citation needed]

Controversies that surround graffiti continue to create disagreement amongst city

officials, law enforcement, and writers who wish to display and appreciate work in
public locations. There are many different types and styles of graffiti; it is a rapidly
developing art form whose value is highly contested and reviled by many authorities
while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction.

HISTORY
The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the
walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Use of
the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that
constitutes vandalism.[5]

The only known source of the Safaitic language, a form of proto-Arabic, is from graffiti:
inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly
basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates
from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

MODERN-STYLE GRAFFITI
The first known example of "modern style" graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of
Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey). Local guides say it is an advertisement for
prostitution. Located near a mosaic and stone walkway, the graffiti shows a handprint
that vaguely resembles a heart, along with a footprint and a number. This is believed to
indicate that a brothel was nearby, with the handprint symbolizing payment.

The ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of which also
survive in Egypt. Graffiti in the classical world had different connotations than they
carry in today's society concerning content. Ancient graffiti displayed phrases of love
declarations, political rhetoric, and simple words of thought, compared to today's
popular messages of social and political ideals[7] The eruption of Vesuvius preserved
graffiti in Pompeii, which includes Latin curses, magic spells, declarations of love,
alphabets, political slogans, and famous literary quotes, providing insight into ancient
Roman street life. One inscription gives the address of a woman named Novellia
Primigenia of Nuceria, a prostitute, apparently of great beauty, whose services were
much in demand. Another shows a phallus accompanied by the text, mansueta tene
("handle with care"). Disappointed love also found its way onto walls in antiquity.

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka scribbled over
1800 individual graffiti there between 6th and 18th centuries. Etched on the surface of
the Mirror Wall, they contain pieces of prose, poetry, and commentary. The majority of
these visitors appear to have been from the elite of society: royalty, officials,
professions, and clergy. There were also soldiers, archers, and even some metalworkers.
The topics range from love to satire, curses, wit, and lament. Many demonstrate a very
high level of literacy and a deep appreciation of art and poetry.[9] Most of the graffiti
refer to the frescoes[10] of semi-nude females found there.

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-
Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political
poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards
the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very
widely.

CONTEMPORARY GRAFFITI
Graffiti writing is often seen as having become intertwined with hip hop culture and the
myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City
Subway graffiti. However, there are many other instances of notable graffiti in the
twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines,
railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges. The example with the longest known history,
dating back to the 1920s and continuing into the present day, is Bozo Texino.[citation
needed]

Some graffiti have their own poignancy. In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the
fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation
to the wrongs of the Old World.
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an
accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by
American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after
the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing
around New York with the words "Bird Lives".[22] The student protests and general
strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist
slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary")
expressed in painted graffiti, poster art, and stencil art. At the time in the US, other
political phrases (such as "Free Huey" about Black Panther Huey Newton) became
briefly popular as graffiti in limited areas, only to be forgotten. A popular graffito of the
1970s was the legend "Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You", reflecting the hostility of the
youth culture to that US president.

ADVENT OF AEROSOL PAINT

Rock and roll graffiti is a significant subgenre. A famous graffito of the twentieth
century was the inscription in the London tube reading "Clapton is God" in a link to the
guitarist Eric Clapton. The phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an
Islington station on the Underground in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured
in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

Graffiti also became associated with the anti-establishment punk rock movement
beginning in the 1970s. Bands such as Black Flag and Crass (and their followers)
widely stenciled their names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats, and
hangouts are famous for their graffiti. In the late 1980s the upside down Martini glass
that was the tag for punk band Missing Foundation was the most ubiquitous graffito in
lower Manhattan, and was copied by hard core punk fans throughout the US and West
Germany.[23]

Along similar lines was the legend "Frodo Lives," referring to the protagonist of The
Lord of the Rings.

EARLY SPRAY-PAINTED GRAFFITI

SPREAD OF HIP HOP CULTURE

In 1979, graffiti artist Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy were given a gallery opening in
Rome by art dealer Claudio Bruni. For many outside of New York, it was their first
encounter with their art form. Fab 5 Freddy's friendship with Debbie Harry influenced
Blondie's single "Rapture" (Chrysalis, 1981), the video of which featured Jean-Michel
Basquiat, and offered many their first glimpse of a depiction of elements of graffiti in
hip hop culture. JaJaJa toured Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland with a
large graffiti canvas as a backdrop.[24] Charlie Ahearn's independently released fiction
film Wild Style (Wild Style, 1983), the early PBS documentary Style Wars (1983), hit
songs such as "The Message" and "Planet Rock" and their accompanying music videos
(both 1982) contributed to a growing interest outside New York in all aspects of hip
hop.

Style Wars depicted not only famous graffiti artists such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and
ZEPHYR, but also reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop
culture by incorporating famous early break-dancing groups such as Rock Steady Crew
into the film and featuring rap in the soundtrack. Although many officers of the New
York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still
recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the
young hip hop culture of the early 1980s.[25] Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip
hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983.[26]
Hollywood also paid attention, consulting writers such as PHASE 2 as it depicted the
culture and gave it international exposure in movies such as Beat Street (Orion, 1984).

STENCIL GRAFFITI EMERGES

This period also saw the emergence of the new stencil graffiti genre. Some of the first
examples were created in 1981 by graffiti artist Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef
Aerosol in Tours (France);[citation needed] by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities
including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by
American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.

COMMERCIALIZATION AND ENTRANCE INTO MAINSTREAM

POP CULTURE
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization.
In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San
Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart,
and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." Due to laws
forbidding it, some of the "street artists" were arrested and charged with vandalism, and
IBM was fined more than US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up
costs.[28][29]

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by TATS CRU in
New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its
handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of
the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings
"a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a
paddle, or a rocking horse".
USES
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least
to the Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism in 1961.
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in
some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art
researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art
is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political
goal.[45]
The murals of Belfast and of Los Angeles offer another example of official
recognition.[46] In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication
and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided
communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and
thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively
covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over
the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity
of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using
spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils
and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s,
graffiti artist Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for
integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang"
and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear
around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she
having become a muse for other graffiti artists and painters worldwide in cities
including Seville.[47]Graffiti artist John Fekner, called "caption writer to the urban
environment, adman for the opposition" by writer Lucy Lippard,[48] was involved in
direct art interventions within New York City's decaying urban environment in the mid-
1970s through the 1980s. Fekner is known for his word installations targeting social and
political issues, stenciled on buildings throughout New York.

PERSONAL EXPRESSION
Graffiti artists constantly have the looming threat of facing consequences for displaying their
graffiti. Many choose to protect their identities and reputation by remaining anonymous.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally
painted "graffiti" art, graffiti artists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various
reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that
is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells
hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many
graffiti artists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain
faceless in today's society.[49] He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol,
England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy
is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret
to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and
surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the
Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical
images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while
another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken
place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a
prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work
distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have
officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism
and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public.[50] Her work
focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock
value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area
of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do
similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks
pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

RADICAL AND POLITICAL

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority,
although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide
range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an
array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band
Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-
consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late
1970s and early 1980s.[51] In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene.
The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat".[52] To
document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So
when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti
culture.

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in
revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-
révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus
("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the
'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the
strikers.

"I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the
French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft
and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way.
We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely."

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as
"on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far
more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media
movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship
to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains
illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s a
growing number of artists are switching[citation needed] to non-permanent paints for a
variety of reasons—but primarily because is it difficult for the police to apprehend them
and for the courts to sentence or even convict a person for a protest that is as fleeting
and less intrusive than marching in the streets. In some communities, such impermanent
works survive longer than works created with permanent paints because the community
views the work in the same vein as that of the civil protester who marches in the
street—such protest are impermanent, but effective nevertheless.

In some areas where a number of artists share the impermanence ideal, an informal
competition develops: the length of time that a work escapes destruction is viewed as a
measure of the respect the work garners in the community. A crude work that deserves
little respect would be invariably removed immediately, while the most talented artists
might have works last for days.

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices.

Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other
art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further
protest.[54] The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and
practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the
anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction
between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.[citation
needed]

On top of the political aspect of graffiti as a movement, political groups and individuals
may also use graffiti as a tool to spread their point of view. This practice, due to its
illegality, has generally become favored by groups excluded from the political
mainstream (e.g. far-left or far-right groups) who justify their activity by pointing out
that they do not have the money – or sometimes the desire – to buy advertising to get
their message across, and that a "ruling class" or "establishment" controls the
mainstream press, systematically excluding the radical and alternative point of view.
This type of graffiti can seem crude; for example fascist supporters often scrawl
swastikas and other Nazi images.

One innovative form of graffiti that emerged in the UK in the 1970s was devised by the
Money Liberation Front (MLF), essentially a loose affiliation of underground press
writers such as the poet and playwright Heathcote Williams and magazine editor and
playwright Jay Jeff Jones. They initiated the use of paper currency as a medium for
counterculture propaganda, overprinting banknotes, usually with a John Bull printing
set. Although short lived, the MLF was representative of London's Ladbroke Grove
centered alternative and literary community of the period. The area was also a scene of
considerable anti-establishment and humorous street graffiti, much of which is also
produced by Williams.[55][dead link] In 2009, following the elections in Iran,
protesters (who regarded the electoral result as rigged) began to deface banknotes with
slogans such as "Death to the dictator". In Colombia writing and drawing on banknotes
has become increasingly popular, either to make political comments, for fun or as an
artistic medium. The national government has run advertising campaigns in an attempt
to discourage the practice. In the UK there have been signs of an MLF resurgence with
a number of banknotes in circulation being over-marked with protest slogans such as
"Banks=Robbers", relating to the perceived culpability of banks in the financial crisis.

Both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland produce political graffiti. As well as
slogans, Northern Irish political graffiti includes large wall paintings, referred to as
murals. Along with the flying of flags and the painting of kerb stones, the murals serve
a territorial purpose, often associated with gang use. Artists paint them mostly on house
gables or on the Peace Lines, high walls that separate different communities.

The murals often develop over an extended period and tend to stylization, with a strong
symbolic or iconographic content. Loyalist murals often refer to historical events dating
from the war between James II and William III in the late seventeenth century, whereas
Republican murals usually refer to the more recent troubles.

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate
certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at
whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic
symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use
graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and
associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and
ideological.[56]

AS ADVERTISING
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based
TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for
companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent
Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that
cross referencing would promote their store.

Tech Giants Hewlett Packard used graffiti company Graffiti Kings based in London to
showcase the creative use for their Sprout computer by producing a video, during the
video Hewlett Packard showed many pieces of graffiti art while the Graffiti Kings artist
used the Sprout computer to draw digital graffiti.[57][58] Smirnoff hired artists to use
reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean
image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product. Shepard Fairey
rose to fame after his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which his art
was plastered in cities throughout America.

Many graffiti artists see legal advertising as no more than "paid for and legalised
graffiti", and have risen against mainstream ads. The Graffiti Research Lab crew have
gone on to target several prominent ads in New York as a means of making a statement
against this practice.
OFFENSIVE GRAFFITI
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be
difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which
have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly).[59]
Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily
recognized as "racist". It can then only be understood if one knows the relevant "local
code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and
thus an 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.[60]

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is
engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti
containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression,
reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases,
the herald of more serious criminal activity to come.[61] A person who does not know
these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if
a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers,
for example, its racist character is even stronger.

Hence, the lack of obvious racist graffiti does not necessarily mean that there is none.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints),[62] these
drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive
character.[63]

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their
mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads.[64] In
Manchester, England a graffiti artist painted obscene images around potholes, which
often resulted in their being repaired within 48 hours.

DECORATIVE AND HIGH ART

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffiti artists to the public
were Fashion Moda in the Bronx and Now Gallery in the East Village, Manhattan.

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began
in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the
work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22
works by New York graffiti artists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article
about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she
hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about
graffiti. Terrance Lindall, an artist and executive director of the Williamsburg Art and
Historic Center, said regarding graffiti and the exhibition:[66]

"Graffiti is revolutionary, in my opinion", he says, "and any revolution might be

considered a crime. People who are oppressed or suppressed need an outlet, so they
write on walls—it's free."
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Dogancay photographed urban walls all over the
world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works.
The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own
expectations and comprises about 30’000 individual images. It spans a period of 40
years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project
comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent..."
(The walls whisper, shout and sing...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to
rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian
Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within
contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.[67]

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand
Palais in Paris — a clear acceptance of the art form into the French art world.[68][69]

Many graffiti artists have used their design talents in other artistic endeavors. In 2009
graffiti artist "Scape" published GRAFF; the Art & Technique of Graffiti, the world's
first book dedicated to displaying the full techniques of creating graffiti art. Other books
that focus on graffiti include Faith of Graffiti by Norman Mailer, Trespass by Taschen
press,[70] and the comic book by Elite Gudz, Concrete Immortalz, which has a graffiti
artist as its main character.

Figurines by KAWS, featuring icons of pop culture, often with crossed-out eyes, run in
limited editions and sell for thousands of dollars.[71] World-renowned street artist
Banksy directed a film in 2010, Exit Through the Gift Shop, which explored street art
and commercialism.