From Gangbanger Tags to Banksy
Ask anybody their thoughts on graffiti, and you’ll get opinions right across the board : some individuals find it vandalism, others a nuanced artform. On the “good press” side, gifted artists such as Banksy have made graffiti an aesthetic pleasure, using stencils to produce tricky graphics with a nuanced political point. This type of graffiti was bound to become fashionable with the public and the likes of The Guardian pressroom : appealing to both eye and intellect. This kind of graffiti is even acquired as prints on canvas, and placed on the walls of middleclass homes and office meeting rooms.
All the same, what about the other end of the spectrum? – the gangbanger, the tagger, the street urchin – this is just seen as antisocial, a crime committed by the untalented. But this is to misinterpret graffiti as purely art. To many individuals, it’s not only art, but a means to mark a district, or even a two finger salute : anti-art, anti-social, anti-establishment.
Graffiti has invariably been a clandestine pursuit, even though the results are very much public facing. The intended audience is often unbeknown. Is it for a rival gang? A message to a single person? To the public? Or….perhaps it’s simply uncalled-for and out of nothing to do.
Whatever the reasons may be, there seems to be some kind of permanent need to spray on walls. Some cities have conceded that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve marked off areas where graffiti is permitted – usually derelict areas, but now and again more civic areas like boarding that surrounds inner city construction sites.
