Tristan Currie. Resubmission for OUGD401 Context of Practice:
Task: write about graffiti in different contexts.
Since the beginning of modern graffiti in the late 60s in Philadelphia by Darryl McCray (aka. Cornbread) to the 21st century graffiti began to serve a purpose more than spreading your name and identifying territory, it developed in too a way of expressing messages, thoughts and ideas. "People with money can put up signs ... if you don't have money you're marginalized...you're not allowed to express yourself or to put up words or messages that you think other people should see. Camel (cigarettes), they're up all over the country and look at the message Camel is sending...they're just trying to keep the masses paralyzed so they can go about their business with little resistance." (Eskae.) In the previous quote, graffiti artist Eskae expresses how big corporate businesses with money have the power to spread their messages and advertisements wherever they want. However when it comes to individuals who have something to say, to communicate, they are stopped and censored by the government because they are not supporting the current political system with their messages. One of the most influential and popular artists to use graffiti in this manner is “Banksy”. The British artist is known for is political and social street art, from stencils to paintings to other everyday objects Banksy uses these to express his messages and thoughts of the society we live in.
In this image on the right, Banksy shows a rat dressed with a tie and a briefcase with money falling out of it, next to it written let them eat crack. This piece of street art portrays the message that the people in charge, the big bosses are rats and that they don’t care about the people only about getting money themselves.
At the same time as graffiti is expressing messages it also does more, in the way of creating insecurity and fear in neighbourhoods. As others may perceive graffiti as an art many see it as a form of vandalism.
The image on the left would be classified as vandalism whilst the on the on the right would be considered more of an art form. The random tags, scribbles and doodles on the wall of the image on the left are careless, not much thought has been given to the final outcome, however the image on the right has more detail and the viewer can tell that more effort and time has gone into the final piece. They both involve the use of spray paint in an illegal form; both of them are vandalism, but society accepts more the image on the right because it expresses a purpose, an image that says more than tags on buildings and city walls. Since graffiti began to emerge from New York in the late 60s it has become more and more accepted in to society, as it began do develop worldwide the purpose of graffiti was different. Many still used it as a way of spreading there name but other began to use it as a more acceptable art form.
Back in the days when graffiti had just started out, to be able to see what other street artists were doing and to learn about the graffiti movement it was limited to magazines, tv and other forms of communication such as radio and photos but when the internet arrived that all changed. Graffiti could be shared with the whole world; you didn’t have to travel to see what was happening in the scene. This was a big change as the messages and ideas that graffiti artists sprayed across their cities could be communicated to thousands of people, and that’s exactly what graffiti was all about, being seen and heard.
Aesthetically graffiti was changing too, from early forms of throw ups to adding characters to pieces.
In the picture above from graffiti artist Tracy 168 is one of the early forms of graffiti, simple letters, detail is very limited, the quicker an artist could get his/her name up the better. As graffiti continued to develop more and more time was spent on creating a piece and more detail was added.
Soon artists began to add characters and even more detail to their pieces, shadows, light effects, more and more colours to eventually creating street art as we recognize it today. The image above is a mural in New York that clearly shows how graffiti has developed over the years. The vast amount of colour used and the time spent in completing the mural expresses that graffiti has become more of an art form.
Reference:
Eskae. (No date). The Emergence of Graffiti in New York City. [Online]. [1997]. Available from: http://www.hiphopnetwork.com/articles/graffitiarticles/emergenceofnycitygraffiti.asp