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Graffiti

Lol, aparently cops dress up as lads n go around askin lads what they write. But they look 30 etc. Rofl.
 
Colour, colour everywhere......

Muzby, I guess I'm a vandal.

I don't use paint or stickers, I use glass mosaics. Started off with different themes, always public spaces, ugly overpasses, roadside cliffs,.... etc. Never private property.

Plenty of glass eyes adorn my fine city, Eye of Isis, almond eyes.... some stayed, some got souvinered... I don't mind. I do them because they are pretty and they have meaning to me.

Latest one is this.... I have commission 3. 2 have gone to my 2 favourite people of the moment, one in Melbourne, one in Brisbane. Super Mario 1 up because I love them both. Everytime they see them on the way to work they need to remind themselves that life is precious and that I care about them. The third is headed for a cliff overlooking my favourite beach.


10042008297-1.jpg


I also have made a Super mario gold coin for another special girl who needed some extra inspiration to collect it each day.... hopefully she has placed it already.;)

I was initially inspired by this Frenchmen (or women)

http://www.space-invaders.com/

Have even tracked one down in Melbourne that I stuck a Space ship mosaic that shoots tiles at his alien.... my personal tribute to him.

Current theme is skulls... no photo's yet, I generally leave for a while to gauge public acceptance. I'm not an unemployed yoof. In fact I probably pay more tax than most of Bluelight combined earn.

Everything I do is for aesthetics and symbolism.


My quiet way of rageing against the system.

PS Muzby, your house is next.......=D
 
The argument for graffiti against mass advertising is groundless. You can't use that as a reason to justify graffiti because you aren't doing anything about the offensive advertising. You're borrowing one offending media for your own ends.

If advertising is that offensive, cover it up, tear it down. Burn the magazines and papers, or rip them. Storm the publishing houses that put out these filth. While you're at it, burn down Maccers, KFC, Starbucks, Nike, et al because it's globalization that is homogenizing the societies we live in.

::

And there seems to be two camps of graffiti. Taggers and graffiti 'art,' folks who leave their I WAS HERE behind like marking territories, and folks who spend hours painting and creating.

So you create a work of art on a wall, someone comes along and tags on it, or covers it up. But if you or the community at large deems it to be shit, that person gets it bad. So who're you to deem what's good or shit, when you don't care if the rest of society thinks what you do is good or shit? There is a dichotomy here, if not a hypocrisy (though most will take offence at that).

But what is overarching among all who practise graffiti, be it tagging or graffiti art, is that you don't care what the world thinks, you want to take back your city. Or you feel it is your right to express yourself on public spaces because since no one claims ownership or because by virtue of being public, it's up for grabs.

So why not take that philosophy further, and mark out a corner on the street and set up a home there? Or take a shower where the hydrant is? Or piss and defecate in a place marked out as your toilet?

The examples in this thread show that graffiti can be art, and it is not something that an outsider will easily 'get.' There is no denying that some of these stuff are beautiful, and I'm familiar with Mr Banksy's stuff. But Banksy aside, so what? How many others out there are doing social commentaries like that? The signal to noise ratio is abysmal. If someone is dissing graffiti and all you have to defend your art is to fall back on Banksy, I'll ask, yeah that's one Banksy, so what else is out there?

What is so amusing and frustrating is that one and all, graff artists and taggers labor under this belief that they're 'expressing themselves' while taking back the city or doing something to subvert the mass normality and blandess that rule our lives. The staunch belief in the righteousness of their 'mission' is mind boggling and excludes all other points of view.

Seriously, why not paint on a canvas? Do you feel that you have something so important to say that you have to shove it down everyone else's throats, just like advertising has been shoved down yours? If you have nothing to say, aren't you simply imposing your own sense of aesthetics on everyone else?

Take away the question of art, take away the rhetoric, take away the pontification, graffiti is doing what YOU want.
 
I am all about putting art on a big banner, and putting it up when appropriate then taking it down when appropriate.
 
MazDan said:
To be able to criticize, I only need to have an opinion and know that its illegal and does hurt a lot of people and costy me and every other tax payer a lot of money.
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A bit ironic coming from the Ecstasy Discussion mod? :)
 
vurtomatic said:
Take away the question of art, take away the rhetoric, take away the pontification, graffiti is doing what YOU want.
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That's exactly right. The question of art is separate from graffiti as a crime. Who gives a shit if it is art or not? What's the point of even arguing over something as subjective as art when it does nothing to absolve the crime of vandalising another person's property? It is immoral to deface another person's property that they have worked hard to pay for. Whether they've painted the Mona Lisa or sprayed a few words on the side of your house is irrelevant.

Btw, another famous graffiti artist that comes to mind, who did some truly shit tags in nothing but a big black texta as well as spray cans was Basquiat.
 
Sure Basquiat began as a graffiti artist, so did Haring. But the moment they gained notoriety, they became art commodities and transferred the bulk of their work to canvas or sulptures. So why's that? Where did the spirit of graffiti go?

You're right that the question of art and its legality/criminality should be treated separately, but unfortunately in the case of graffiti, it can't. The people who do it, won't let it be separated.

Yeah you can look at a piece of beautiful graffiti and decide if it's good or bad art. And you can look at the same graffiti and decide if it belongs on the wall.

But the very nature of graffiti and its sub-culture IS its criminality or its act of rebellion. If we separate its criminality from the art, you're in effect neutering your art because as mentioned previously, how about you put graffiti up on legal walls, or in a gallery? How about we create a commune just for graffiti artists to live in, where the public space does belong to the taggers and graff artists, where they're free to tag wherver they want within that boundary? I'll bet you it's a no-go.

We all know/admit that the moment graffiti becomes legal, it loses its impact.

Not saying that this justifies graffiti or defends its illegality, but the sub-culture CHOSE to practise and revel in this act of rebellion and criminality, and tries to elevate it into something much bigger than what it is.

A small handful might really be producing art. Some might be painting pretty colorful pictures. And the majority are scribbling their names marking their territories or where they've been. Art? Maybe. Crap? More than likely.

But don't collectively try to make it into something if it isn't. Three artists who came from graffiti roots doesn't make everyone else an artist. That's like saying anyone who speaks and writes English is a Shakespeare or a writer.
 
But don't collectively try to make it into something if it isn't. Three artists who came from graffiti roots doesn't make everyone else an artist. That's like saying anyone who speaks and writes English is a Shakespeare or a writer.
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I'm not trying to make graff artists out to be as good as Banksy or Basquiat. I brought up Banksy to show Mazdan that vandalism can simultaneously be art. I agree that most graff looks shit (btw I am NOT a graff artist). Personally I hate the loud colours and generic lettering that they do, but sometimes you'll stumble across something clever or interesting that does indeed look pretty cool. But even scrawling ugly tags which have little artistic merit onto a public wall somewhere succeeds in giving said wall an urban grunge character. I don't think it looks good but it alters the audience's perception and reaction to what would otherwise be just a bland wall.

And what makes an artist? Getting paid? Having skill/talent? Doing works on big canvases? Having paintings in a gallery? That's as ambiguous as defining art.
 
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But the very nature of graffiti and its sub-culture IS its criminality or its act of rebellion.
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I think you're getting it now. It's no coincidence graffiti is very popular in both the hip hop and punk scenes. That is not what it's ALL about however.
And there seems to be two camps of graffiti. Taggers and graffiti 'art,' folks who leave their I WAS HERE behind like marking territories, and folks who spend hours painting and creating.
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It's not quite as black and white as that. Every artist has a tag. It's more like a signature. The difference is the mindset. Some people really do have this complex and feel the need to go around tagging over everyone elses work. Some people love having beef. Some people feel they don't ever have to evolve, and that their shitty tag is all they need. It is stupid. Tis the way of the world. Some of the artists that can create the best peices of 'art' are also into the whole psuedo-warfare tagging thing. It's different for everybody.

The fact remains that 'graffiti' has been along since the dawn of time, it's purpose is to convey a message. Whatever that message says, is up to the writer. Not everyone is going to agree with that persons message. People are always going to do things that don't make sense to other people. As long as it doesn't harm anyone, I see no problems with it.

i love your work busty.
 
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^Convey a message? In some cases yes. I don't see what message a scum rat 16 year old is conveying when tagging all over a train window, last tag i saw was "masseka".

Yeah, real message there.
 
A lot of people dont know this but I was some what of a legendary graph artist in the day.

Here is one that I did when I was in uni

GDP.UN.Gap.jpg
 
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