Graffiti in Its Various Forms
Ask anyone their thoughts on graffiti, and you’ll get opinions of love and hatred : some people see it as vandalism, others a subtle artform. On the one hand, talented creatives such as Banksy have made graffiti an artform that is pleasing on the eye, employing stencils to produce tricky artworks loaded with a nuanced political point. This kind of graffiti was bound to become popular with the masses and the artworld : pleasing to the eye, and the intellect. This kind of graffiti is even bought as canvas prints, and placed on the walls of suburban homes and office meeting rooms.
Even so, what about the opposite end of the spectrum? – the tagger, the gangbanger type – this is just seen as hooliganism, an offence committed by the untalented. However misinterprets graffiti as strictly an art form. To many people, it’s not only art, but a method to mark a district, or even two fingers up at society : anti-art, anti-social, anti-establishment.
Graffiti has invariably been a clandestine activity, although the effects are very much public facing. The targeted audience is often unidentified. Is it for a rival crew? A communication to a single person? To the public at large? Or….possibly it’s merely uncalled-for and out of nothing to do.
Whatever the causes may be, there appears to be a enduring need to spray graffiti on walls. Some city councils have admitted that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve marked off areas where graffiti is allowed – normally unoccupied areas, but from time to time more civic areas like boarding that surrounds urban construction sites.
