Off The Wall

Investigating Philadelphia’s Graffiti, Street Art, and Public Art

HAVERFORD COLLEGE NOVEMBER 3 - 23 2018

Exhibit organized by Colin Fredrickson ’18, Isabella Siegel ’19, and Phillip Norman ’19

WHY PHILLY? Philadelphia’s graffiti, street art, and public art tell captivating stories about the struggles, joys, aspirations, and political concerns of its citizens. Pairing photographic documentation alongside excerpts from oral history interviews with seventeen Philly artists and arts administrators, OFF THE WALL presents a tangle of narratives about the meaning, impact, and value of creative placemaking in the city of Philadelphia. Broadly, these narratives speak to a historical trajectory that begins with the advent of Philly wall-writing in 1967, shifts in direction with the implementation of anti-graffiti policy and programs in 1984, and leads to Philly’s present status as a remarkably distinct cityscape, renowned for its still-vibrant graffiti culture, robust street art scene, and expansive outdoor gallery of over 4,000 murals.

Although this exhibit is split between categories of graffiti, street art, and public art, these artists and their work resist totalizing definitions. Each oral history and its accompanying visuals stand alone as an independent perspective, sometimes in harmony with others, at other times contrasting, contradicting, and introducing distinct new lines of thinking. Rather than producing stable conclusions, the multiplicity of voices and images gathered in this exhibition sets out to complicate dominant preconceptions about Philly’s visual landscape by hearing directly from the people who shape it.

Photograph courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork by NDA.

GRAFFITI

While many attribute the birth of graffiti to New York in the 1980s, graffiti as we know it today began in Philadelphia in 1967. While doing time in a Juvenile Detention center, young teen Darryl McCray earned the name “CORNBREAD,” because of his insistent requests for more southern style home cooking. He took to this nickname and started writing it on the walls of the center; after leaving, he started signing the walls of the city as well. COOL EARL, TRACY 168, and more soon joined him, each person adding their own unique insignia to the walls. In 1970s Philly, teens formed “social clubs,” which soon became creative spaces for graffiti writers. Club Odigma Experience and Delta Phi Soul became two of the first graffiti crews.

Back then, they didn’t call it “graffiti,” which was a word first used to criminalize their art. Instead they referred to themselves as “writers.” The social club crews were joined by new crews that formed from gangs, such as the Klub Notorious Printers (KNP) and Imperial Casanova Persuaders (ICP). Gang crews added to Philly’s style evolution, further refining the lettering. These crews were part of a movement that tailored a style known as Philly Gang Hand, known for its swirling, whimsical lettering.

While the graffiti movement began to spread to New York in the eighties, Philly was developing a distinct calligraphy known as the ‘wicket’ handstyle, also known as ‘wicked’ style. ‘Wicket’ is recognized by long, tapering letters, and ‘wicket’ writers curve the spray can to create flares with the paint. Successful ‘wicket’ writing takes years to master, and many writers begin learning the skill from others that have been in the game for much longer. These kinds of apprenticeships began in what some call the Golden Age of Graffiti in the seventies and eighties, when ‘kings’—the most experienced writers—would train ‘toys,’ the young kids who were new to the scene. Today, online platforms allow some graffiti writers to teach themselves and to connect with one another. But the real bonds are made while writing on the street, where these artists continue to teach one another, keeping this Philadelphia-born art form alive and well.

Shoba “I didn’t really have an OG, and that’s kind of a thing in Philly, getting fathered into graffiti. So I took to social media a lot. Me and my friend were always looking at the writers that were pretty popping during that time, like KARMA, DRAMA, RASAD, and BUM. Amongst many other writers, those were our main influences. We would literally copy their hands and books until we got them down right.” Although SHOBA began writing for social media with the intention of getting big on the Internet, his focus started to change after he got into the scene. “I write because it’s fun, I’ve made great relationships with some of my closest friends. And I like to keep it that way, you know? Like I wanted to be ‘Instafamous,’ I wanted to get thousands of likes on Instagram. And over time that idea died, in my head. I just want to paint with my friends at the end of the day...I don’t think [graffiti] needs that kind of attention. ‘Cause that’s why it’s rebellious. We do what we do because we are told we aren’t allowed to. There’s so much about writing that’s, like—‘ F*** what you guys think.

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner.

Artwork by SHOBA.

“We’re gonna do it how we want — without directly hurting people, you know?

There’s a sense of pride in it.”

BUSTA

BUSTA grew up in Bogota, Colombia, where he and his friends spent their time roaming the streets, practicing tricks on their skateboards, and writing graffiti on the walls of the city. BUSTA began painting mashups of Renaissance and Baroque painting styles with graffiti bubble letters while studying art history in college. He researched the history of graffiti, and was struck by the influence that Philly had on other cities.

“Then I was like, damn, Philly actually has a better sense of graffiti than other cities. They have the roots.” After college, he moved to Philadelphia to join the Mural Arts Training Program. Later, he continued to make his own artwork around the city, joining up with other writers, and studying the history of graffiti as an integral part of art history itself. “I see the potential of graffiti in the art world, and so much more…

When you learn something, you find that there is always way more to learn, that you really don’t know anything about it. Yo solo sé que no sé nada. I only know that I don’t know.”

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork by BUSTA.

COLORZ “I always just loved graffiti, just the whole visual art of it, the way that it’s all planned out and meticulously drawn out in the short amount of time that is given. Because anybody can sit there for days and days and days and push out a cool piece, but not just anybody can push out a nice, big piece in an hour and call it a piece. And, I think that really sets apart a good writer.” Like many writers, COLORZ is a tough critic of the art of graffiti. “A big problem with a lot writers is that they think that just because they’re throwing up a bunch of black and white bubble writers around the city, they’re doing graffiti.

It’s just vandalism, in my eyes. Like if you’re throwing up some sh*t throw-ups, with no color schemes, no structure — you know, [there’s] no real point to your message.”For COLORZ, it’s not just about the tag.

It’s also about the location.

”The high spots always appeal to me. When I was a kid, I saw people hitting the L...I thought they were superhumans.”

Painting his name in hard to reach places, like the lines of the Market-Frankford Line, sets writers like COLORZ apart, adding a daredevil element to his game.

Photography courtesy of COLORZ. Artwork by COLORZ.

kwes

Growing up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, KWES started drawing while hanging out with a group of kids at school who drew comic book characters together. “I had that as my drawing influence...if you look at the way Spawn’s cape was, with its weird flow...there are elements of that that could transfer into graffiti.

I mean even Spawn’s logo was like graffiti.” Graffiti began as a mystery to him, the writers almost like their own comic book characters. “Not knowing who did it, it almost had a vigilante aspect to it, because you just pictured somebody lurking in the shadows. As a kid, that mystery was appealing.”

He started writing KWES in 1996, citing writers like SEMET, MESE, and ESZE as major influences, and later, writers like GANE, SENSI, and DEMO. To KWES, having that influence is important for developing a handstyle.

“Essentially, Philly started wall writing. At the end of the day, it all comes down to handstyles. You can’t be writing in Philly and not have a decent tag.”

KWES makes his living as a graphic designer, and sees tagging as a form of branding.

“The reason I got into graphic design was graffiti.

You’re putting a brand out there, like a recognizable stamp. If you really look at it, graffiti is guerilla marketing at its finest.”

Photography courtesy of KWES. Artwork by KWES.

ALLOYIUS

“Growing up and being an artist, I always wanted to have my art on the biggest scale, so that everyone could see it. And one of those things that appealed to me about doing street art is it’s almost like an outside gallery.” Drawing from the culture of the city around him, ALLOYIUS combines influences of both mural art and graffiti art in his work. “We have more murals than any other city in the entire world, and that was always inspiring growing up.

The reason why I love Philly so much is it’s very encouraging for artistic people.”

Unlike most muralists, ALLOYIUS creates many of his pieces on the spot, without sketching it out off the wall first, which he refers to as ‘freestyle’ painting.

“It’s pretty much the same thing as when rappers do it...they just throw a beat and just start flowing and trying to create something out of nothing.

And for me, it’s kind of like my beat is the environment, so whatever environment I’m creating in, I try to pull from that.”

Photography courtesy of ALLOYIUS. Artwork by ALLOYIUS.

STREET ART

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork by Sheldon Abba.

Producing street art is a practice in breaking definition. Street artists thrive in the gray area between legal and illegal, permanent and temporary.

Working outside the structure of established art programs and producing work independently can be especially difficult in Philadelphia, where institutions such as Mural Arts Philadelphia have dominated the public art sphere. Despite these obstacles, Philly has produced strong street artists who have created works that push social and spatial boundaries. Whether through wheat pastings, murals, stencils, or other media, these creators make meaningful interventions in the daily lives of Philadelphians. As these artists describe, putting work into the public arena is as much a self-fulfilling practice as it is a conversation with the neighborhood. Where commissioned artists may be limited in their scope, street artists are able to produce highly personalized work as a means to connect more intimately with the public. Though there is a sense of rebellion, lawlessness, and freedom inherent to street art, these creators understand that their actions have consequences.

Whether disrupting the work of a fellow artist or knowing their role within or outside the city’s ongoing struggle with gentrification, street artists must be careful at all times, remaining aware of their impact on the very space and communities that gave them the opportunity to flourish. Artists from around the globe have lauded Philly’s street art scene, and it remains a continuing source of inspiration for new work.

BLUR

BLUR has spent years filling the streetscape with messages of encouragement for her fellow Philadelphians by pasting her signature Mouth Series stickers on walls all across the city.

Living with chronic illness since a young age, she produces street art to inspire other artists who face similar challenges in doing what they love, and as a way to cope with her own condition.

By spreading her artwork and telling her story throughout the city, BLUR hopes to touch the hearts of passersby in a positive, and perhaps long-lasting way.

Though she does not produce what might commonly be understood as “political art,” she sees the act of telling her story and claiming public space as a woman as deeply political.

“We all essentially just want to be seen and heard. Those are the two things that all humans crave, and when we get that we feel fulfilled.”

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner.

Artwork by BLUR.

MARISA

VELAZQUEZRIVAs For Marisa VelazquezRivas, art has always been a platform for political discourse. From her experience in art school to her upbringing in Puerto Rico and Venezuela, Marisa has been engaged in discussions about race and identity in vastly different political climates. This shows in her artwork, consisting of large, often colorful wheat pastings with strong feminist themes. During her time spent in Philly, she has developed a deep appreciation for this city’s street art scene and its street artists.

“I think the amount of ‘no’s’ I’ve received just kinda made me feel like, y’know, why not make Philly my bitch and her streets my gallery?”

Today, her work highlights resistance to the Trump administration from immigrant and queer communities.

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork by Marisa Velazquez-Rivas.

ru8icon1

A Barcelona-based artist, Ru8icon1 has redefined what it means to produce community-based murals and seeks new ways for neighborhoods to get involved in art production.

Rather than taking the “mural by committee” approach most often associated with Mural Arts Philadelphia, he believes in taking greater creative control in his own hands, trusting the community to find meaning in the mural and open dialogue about the artwork. To him, a mural that is debated and discussed by residents of the neighborhood is far more interesting and powerful than one with content that is ‘safe’ or expected.

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner.

Artwork by RU8ICON1.

“Art is supposed to be a little bit risky and say something interesting…If there’s no risk of disaster, it’s not art.”

He and a handful of other muralists continue to produce work in Kensington and surrounding neighborhoods.

joe

boruchow

Since the George W. Bush administration, Joe Boruchow has been producing posters made from original paper cutouts and displaying them in public spaces as a means to spread political commentary. He draws inspiration from 18th century political pamphlets, a practice that made a large impact on Philadelphia’s history and identity. “...I’ve always felt like my work fit right in with that. With the printing press being the mode of getting out those pamphlets, that’s kind of an analogue to what I do with the copying now, getting it out there, putting out my feelings on current topics.” Though he is currently not concentrating on street art, he has produced work recently that takes aim at the Trump administration. His work is heavily influenced by that of Keith Haring, whom he met as a child.

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner.

Artwork byJoe Boruchow.

sheldon abba Sheldon Omar-Abba was first drawn to Philadelphia by its skate culture.

Since then, he has been connecting neighborhoods and people across the city as a self-described “project coordinator,� through various self-initiated and group projects. He sees his photography as an entry point to relationship building and discussions around race, identity, and social justice.

His current work acts as both a visual diary and means of documenting a city in a moment and form that will soon be lost forever. While he does not refer to himself as a street artist, his production exists outside the structure of institutional arts programs, inhabiting a precarious space between unofficial public exhibition, petty vandalism, and public service.

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork

by Sheldon Abba.

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork by El Seed.

public art

Philadelphia, “The City of Murals,” is home to the most expansive governmentsanctioned public arts program in the nation—Mural Arts Philadelphia (MAP). Since its inception in 1984 as a small city agency charged with addressing a so-called graffiti epidemic by employing graffiti writers as muralists, MAP has transformed into a city-wide public arts force of unmatched impact and influence.

Decades of mural work by MAP has stimulated the growth of a substantial public arts economy in Philly, where numerous other arts organizations and freelance muralists also take on significant roles in shaping the city’s visual landscape.

A third generation West Philadelphian, Nilé is a freelance graphic designer and muralist who has independently created or assisted on a number of public arts projects throughout Philadelphia. “I graduated from Kutztown in 2010, and I had a really hard time finding a job. So I decided to use the skills I had learned in high school, from being in the Mural Arts Program, and I put together a volunteer mural project in North Philly, at the Cecil B. Moore Rec Center. My childhood friend helped put this together…

”We went and walked around to barbershops, community centers, churches, and just got the people in the neighborhood involved.”

nilÉ

The grassroots community mural work that Nilé did in North Philly ended up leading to future commissions and consistent freelance work with Mural Arts.

livingston

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork by Nilé Livingston.

NDA

As an artist who dabbles in street art alongside his career as a professional muralist, “staying open to the world” and engaging with the communities where he installs his work is integral to NDA’s artistic practice, social life, and mental health. Compared to street art, which doesn’t presume permanence, commissioned murals introduce additional ethical dilemmas due to their long-term visibility within a neighborhood.

Because these projects are often funded by developers, some of whom are more community-minded than others, NDA must grapple with the difficulty of maintaining an ethical public art practice that seeks to preserve established community interests: “[A]s much as I’d like to make that money and y’know, like, being quite frank about it that’s what I need to do to stay in this profession, is like take those jobs—some of them you have to say no to. I think it’s like your responsibility to be able to suss that out. Do I get it wrong sometimes and work with bad people? Sure. But, like, I think I’ve gotten pretty good at feeling that out and understanding people’s intentions before we get started.”

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner.

Artwork by NDA.

Craig

grossman

As a general partner of the developing agency behind Philadelphia’s Spring Arts District, Craig lends his personal passion for street art collecting to his professional ambition of transforming old industrial buildings into sites for revitalized investment.In collaboration with MAP, Craig has commissioned a variety of local Philly muralists and street artists to do work in the Spring Arts District.

Public art often figures importantly into efforts to cultivate a marketable aesthetic and “identity” for an in-development neighborhood that hopes to draw members of “the creative class.”

This broad term references everyone from actual artists and artisans to what Craig calls the more “metaphorical makers,” like branding agencies, marketing firms, smalltime entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations.

With its rhetorical emphasis on “creation” and “curating,” the process of development is often envisioned as an artistic enterprise unto itself: “This was first and foremost about…curating a neighborhood around arts, culture, makers, doers, innovators, small businesses, local entrepreneurs…To find like-minded, kindred spirits, synergistic businesses to work together…to find those collaborators that want to be a part of creating place.”

“This neighborhood felt almost black and white to me, maybe with some hints at sepia tones coming through, but it just felt like it was ripe for some color… That’s one thing that public art can Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner. Artwork by Glossback. do.”

EVAN LOVETT

V.U.R.T COLLECVTIVE

“The blight that society has on the natural environment, wildlife…I mean if you think about it too much it’s so depressing and disgusting…The reason I like doing animals throughout the city is because they’re overlooked, you know? Like we’re not the only ones here. We may build the walls, and pave the streets, and work here, and live here, but we’re not alone.”

Already a wellestablished tattoo and mural artist, in 2016 Evan Lovett co-founded VURT in order to advocate for visual arts education in public schools and Photography courtesy of create more opportunities for freelance Conrad Benner. artists seeking to do impactful mural work in Artwork by Evan Philadelphia. For Lovett, VURT’s “Local Critters” Lovett. series is an opportunity to merge his interests in advocating for both the visual arts and environmental conservation. By working as a muralist in Philadelphia and other cities across the country, Evan has observed how the work of artists and artisans—no matter its expressed intentions— can often be co-opted into controversial urban renewal initiatives: “Low-income [neighborhood], artists move in, artists make a difference, people see that difference, people invest in that neighborhood because they know other people see that difference—the attention is there… And not just artists, but artisans. Y’know, that little niche bakery, or whatever, that moves into the neighborhood for the same reason, because they couldn’t afford to do it anywhere else.

DAVE

As the project leader on Asian Arts Initiative (AAI)’s current People:Power:Place initiative, Dave is working on a neighborhood cultural plan that “hopes to foster relationships among diverse neighbors and advocate for a vision that is inclusive and embraces both ‘old’ and ‘new.’”

kyu

“If you think of yourself as neutral in public space, then you’re… exacerbating [that inequity]… [I]f artists acknowledge their role in that, then there are tools at their disposal to help, but it doesn’t start without that acknowledgement…‘Oh, I’m a nice person, therefore I’m not a gentrifier.’

That narrative has to go out the window. People need to acknowledge their complicity in order to fight against the homogenization of culture.”

Acknowledging that artists often play a pivotal role in unchecked and fundamentally inequitable processes of urban revitalization, AAI works to use their organizational presence in Chinatown to help protect the established community’s interests during a time of rampant change. Speaking about AAI’s neighborhood work, Dave regards, “The nice thing about being a very small arts organization is that we’re not a city government. We don’t have to serve all audiences throughout the entire city…We can move away from fair…and more towards equitable.” As a small arts organization that targets a historically underserved community of Asian-Americans living in the Chinatown neighborhood, AAI can have a pointed focus in addressing gentrification and the cultural homogenization that is its inevitable end result when market forces alone are allowed to drive the process.

Photography courtesy of Asian Arts Initiative.

hazami sayed

As Al-Bustan’s Founder and Executive Director, Hazami is pushing her organization’s public art works to transcend the typical limits of two-dimensional creative interventions by building inclusive, dignified spaces for community dialogue and cultural sharing.

In Fall 2017, Al-Bustan commissioned Tunisian muralist El Seed to paint “Soul of the Black Bottom” in the West Philadelphia neighborhood where the organization is based. The mural’s title references the piece’s location on the site of the original “Black Bottom,” a historically African-American neighborhood that was razed by a 1960s urban renewal project which displaced thousands. With the mural now completed, Hazami is thinking about how it can positively activate its surrounding environment: “The corner lot, the empty lot, is a different owner, and we didn’t need his permission before [to paint the mural], but we want his permission now to make something of that space, so it just doesn’t become an empty vacant lot that becomes filled with trash.” AlBustan’s drive to press beyond public art’s initial impact was on full display with another 2017 project, An Immigrant Alphabet, which invited artist Wendy Ewald to collaborate with students from Northeast High School on a piece about immigrant identity.

This project brought Center City’s Thomas Paine Plaza to life with a series of accompanying performances and participatory boards that spurred viewers to discuss and reflect upon the piece. Hazami remembers,

“It was hopeful for me to see that this project could happen, that the artist already came with this belief in a collaborative process and that the students kinda went along and had so much to say and give of themselves to result in this very powerful representation in this central space.”

Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner.

cathy harris

During her sixteen-year tenure as Director of Community Murals, Cathy has helped facilitate MAP’s expansion into a range of new communities and issue areas, including restorative justice and public health advocacy.

“I really enjoy going into communities and identifying ways that Mural Arts can use the resources and contacts that it has to the betterment of that community… if it’s sealing up an abandoned house, or getting cars towed…because of our connection to the city, there’s a lot of things that we can do that go beyond the artwork.”

In its capacity as a public arts wing of city government, MAP can sometimes serve as an intermediary force that alerts the government to the needs of systematically neglected neighborhoods. Yet even as Mural Arts attempts to serve community interest on multiple fronts, Cathy’s department must frequently address community members’ anxieties that public arts projects are a sign of changing times which could lead to being priced out of their homes: “There’s a lot of gentrification of course, around Philadelphia. So dealing with that is really challenging… People feel almost threatened by what you might be doing, what you might be bringing to the table, and who you might be bringing to do it, y’know?

So that is something else that has to be navigated, and just making sure that people, and the history, of communities is respected.”

Photography courtesy of Mural Arts Program.

Artwork by Ian Pierce.

Thank you to all the graffiti writers, artists, photographers, and supporters of the arts who contributed to this project.

All oral history interviews were realized with support from Conrad Benner of streetsdept.com.

Sponsored by the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, the Rufus Jones Memorial Fund, the Hurford Center for the Arts and Humanities’ Student Arts Fund, and VCAM.

Photography and courtesy of ALLOYIUS. Artwork by ALLOYIUS. BACK COVER: Photography courtesy of Conrad Benner.

Artwork by NDA.