Grafitti: Art or Crime?

New life brings new art.

“Graffiti is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place “, says Wikipedia. This kind of drawing exists since human started drawing. Examples of first graffiti drawing were found in the walls of Pompeii and Catacombs of Rome, and considered as an art form. However, modern graffers usually are being sent to jail for drawing on public walls. Graffiti is not an art form anymore, now it’s a crime. If you ask people around you if they think graffiti is an art or vandalism, you can find out that there is no equal division between for and against answers. Moreover, there are people who will consider graffiti as an art and as a crime in the same time, depending on where those were drawn. Graffiti itself is an art form, though. It is the fact that is drawn in the properties of others without permissions that makes graffiti considered as vandalism. There are some evidences that prove that graffiti is an art form, such us: its own unique features, its division into different forms of art- drawing and writing, and its own particular meaning. What makes graffiti an art form? Each kind of art: music, paintings, literature, uses its own certain techniques that make each one of them special. Graffiti as one of the street art forms uses special materials for drawing, it has certain techniques how to draw and the overall outcome of graffiti drawing differs from any other form of art. Graffers use spray paints, markers and other tools for their drawing. Moreover, it needs a lot of preparation, certain drawing skills, creativity to make a really good graffiti drawing. Some of these drawings are considered as masterpieces. Certain famous graffers even have their own street exhibitions, which is becoming really popular nowadays. There are also graffers who earn money from drawing legally on the walls of buildings or tagging some commercial buildings, in other words writing on them. Graffiti can be considered as writing, too. “The graffito is an odd kind of writing at once secretive and public, immediate and obscure” (2004, p. 277). Usually the purpose of such graffiti writings is to bring certain kind of information to public or just self-advertisement. They can use this writing in political ways as well. As the author of the article published in “The Economist” magazine mentions “The point of political propaganda is, after all, not to offend and annoy people, but influence them” (2004, p. 279). They try to influence people through graffiti writing because the writers (or graffers) are the same usual people as those who will read them, so the influence in that way is more probable, than if a politician would say something to a public. Other reason for it is that graffer use his own life experience to make writing on a wall that can catch attention of the audience, and his experience is more probable to be the same as the audiences than the life quality of a politician. Like any other kind of art, graffiti exists for expressing artist’s feelings and emotions. It is an easy way to live a mark in this world. It is a little chance to be remembered, sometimes illegally, however. Graffiti has a soul. This usually is a soul of anger and passion. When a graffer draws on the wall, he tries to express all he has in a very emotional way. Even the colors that are used in graffiti art gives us a signal, makes us to pay attention to it by brightness and colorfulness. Graffiti has a soul of youth and hope, too. As technology, lifestyles, ideals and aspirations of society are developing and changing, art is changing also. Graffiti came to life to express the soul of new life, passion and youth. Its anger and sort of vandalism can be easily connected to the life that people have nowadays. Life when you have to fight for your place in the earth. In that case graffiti makes a lot of sense; it explains the truth in its own unique way. Graffiti is a very important component of modern art, which embodies not only the style of teenagers in America, but also is a distinct genre which is closely intertwined with other fields of arts such as music, dance, design, and many others. Moreover, it is kind of art that can be expressed and understood in different ways: you can see writing on the wall saying “Hey, I was here!”, or other stuff seems to be messages, or an installation art which is there just because someone felt like drawing his feelings. Graffiti is no doubt the style of the new generation, a new kind of art.

References
2004. The Writing on the Wall. The Economist 18th December. pp. 68-72. In A. Shine (Ed.) Majlis of the ‘others’ (2nd ed.) London, UK: Pearson Education.

References: 2004. The Writing on the Wall. The Economist 18th December. pp. 68-72. In A. Shine (Ed.) Majlis of the ‘others’ (2nd ed.) London, UK: Pearson Education.