Graffiti In Ancient Egypt

Graffiti is the act of drawing scribbled, scratched or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. In Ancient Egypt hieroglyphs were used on doorjambs, hallways, entranceways, or the reverse side of objects to give insight to history, public record, random facts and other stories (Wegner). The “Sator Square” is found in many sites of the Roman Empire. It has the phrase “Sator opera tenet; tenet opera sator”, which is roughly translated to “The Great Sower holds in his hands all works; all works the Great Sower holds in his hand”. This play on words can be read various ways (Parkinson). Graffiti in Athens came in various forms through insults, ownership, commercial notations, dedications, and other Grecian artifacts (Lang).
Graffiti has been integrated into the larger group of street art. Street art consisted of yarn bombing, graffiti, sticker art, etc. While they can be aesthetically pleasing, Banksy took on the role to educate the masses by creating graffiti on the West Bank in 2005, to emphasize the divide between Palestine and Israel. Not only did he do two dimensional stencil art pieces, he did other installations as well. From the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy is seen posting a dummy un Guantanamo Bay prison outfit to a Disneyland ride. His message was meant to make those detainees noticed, but instead this stunt was seen as a threat to Americans. Banksy loved creating graffiti whilst inducing thought provoking ideas to change businesses, as well as the political side of the
Brainwash, also known as Thierry Guetta, spent a large portion of his life recording everything he saw. Through these recordings the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop was created. Along the way he stumbled into the street art movement, and he started recording street artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey. Through the time spent with them he developed a love for thrill seeking in the illegality of putting up street art. He enjoyed the thrill so much he began working on his own street art through stickers and stencils. At first it seemed like a hidden passion that was released through time spent with other street artists, but then it turned into a business deal. He began mass producing a product just for the sake of mass production. Most of his work had no deeper meaning, it was just a superficial stab at becoming creative. However, this was a legal route to get his work out there. Through jampacked art galleries and online sales, he was able to attain the fame and fortune of other street artists without doing half of the work. Banksy and Shepard Fairey did not consider what Mr. Brainwash did as art. He used the ideas from other people’s artist styles, white-washed them, and used them to brainwash the masses through his business