Sandles 1 Andrea Sandles Instructor Newsom English 1020 20 March, 2012 Graffiti: A New Art Form Arises Graffiti is a simple word that can create a bad taste in one’s mouth or stir up the imagination of someone else; one either likes it or does not and people are not afraid to publicly voice their opinions. The controversy that follows graffiti has been going on for decades. Many people do not like graffiti because they believe it defaces property and makes cities appear rundown. The appearance of a rundown city aggravates citizens because they take pride in their city and get offended when someone spray-paints all over buildings, streets, subways, etc.places that are seen by the public each and every day. On the other hand, there are companies and museums that support graffiti as a new art form. In 2011, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles hosted “the ‘first major U.S. museum survey of graffiti and street art’ Sponsored in part by Nike and Levi's, ‘Art in the Streets’ celebrates a form of cultural expression that America has collectively spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to suppress during the last 40 years” (Beato). Graffiti is taking a new turn in today’s society. Some companies such as MOCA, Nike, and Levi’s are trying to remove the association graffiti has with being trashy or rundown and are trying to put it in a better light. They are showing people graffiti is a new art form that is arising regardless if the public wants it to or not, so the public might as well embrace it. Graffiti is considered art when it evokes an emotional response, makes a statement either by words or pictures towards an audience that is not limited to the artist and his friends, and it is not considered art when the objective is to ruin property and when another rule is violated. Sandles 2 Art can make one shudder, weep, or go in awe and graffiti has the same effect on people. Art can be phenomenal or less than average depending on the artist and how skilled he is, and again, the same for graffiti. When people take one step into the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome, Italy their heart stops and they inhale a huge amount of air in aspiration- they are star struck by the magnificent beauty that Michelangelo Buonarroti painted on each and every inch of the chapel’s ceiling. Michelangelo is especially infamous for his “Creation of Adam” painting on the chapel’s ceiling and people all over the world desire to go to Rome just to take a that breathtaking step into the Sistine Chapel for this specific painting. Many people have this same desire and out-of-body experience when they see a graffiti design, especially one by Banksy. Banksy is a widely known graffiti artist in today’s society and is known to strike a mostly in London, England but ventures from country to country in order to make controversial statements through his graffiti. Martin Bull, author of Banksy Location & Tours, had an enthralling moment when he was graffiti hunting: I’m on the top deck (the best seat in the house for a graf spotting!) as my bus goes past the site. I half-heartedly turn to look at the wall. OMG! I jump up, ring the buzzer, and stop the bus. I’m excited not just because it’s new, but because it has Banksy metaphorically written all over it (although many amazingly doubted it at first!) and most importantly because it was the first piece of graffiti for months to actually stop me in my tracks, to move me, and to make me fall in love again. The quality was amazing, and the subject poignant. Bull literally stopped a bus in order to see a Banksy original at first-hand. He was awe- struck for and having an out-of-body experience for a piece of graffiti just as anyone does when walking into the Sistine Chapel. Graffiti artists have the power to move people through their eye-catching Sandles 3 artwork just as much as classical artists still move people today. If graffiti can invoke an emotional response from people just as much as a painting from a well renowned artist like Michelangelo then graffiti should be considered art. Besides invoking an emotional response, in order to be considered art, graffiti needs to make a statement using words or pictures. Taki 183, a graffiti artist known to have started the graffiti movement, spray-painted his name all over subway stations and placed stickers of his name in various places across New York. Even though it is just his name being plastered everywhere he was making a bold statement against politician campaigns, “‘They’re putting it everywhere;’ he says. ‘So why shouldn't I? That was my sixteen-year-old rationale’” (Beato). In Taki 183’s mind, if politicians can post their names on signs and hang up posters on buildings in various cities then why should he not be able to? He is making a strong statement for equality. Everyone should be able to partake in the same activities, whether it is even as simple as being able to have a name on a sticker and sticking it somewhere in the city to promote one’s self. Taki 183 just took a more creative route and decided to spray-paint the outside of subways instead of displaying posters inside of them. Either way, Taki 183 used words to make a statement through his use of graffiti. The statement graffiti artists make not only has to be through words or pictures but it also needs to be targeted towards a broad audience. If an artist created a picture that only he and his friends understood then the artwork and the artist would most likely never become famous. Most artwork makes a current or popular controversial statement so more people can relate to their piece of art. Creating art that no one can relate to, or understand, is similar to referring to an inside joke with a friend who is not present in the group when the joke is being told. The audience would simply stop and make puzzling faces at the person, just as they would to a piece Sandles 4 of graffiti that is limited to solely the artist and a few others. A graffiti artist who incorporates his own personal feelings while making public statements through his graffiti is well known in France. In an interview with this graffiti artist, known as C215, the artist described his work of “broken people”-meaning the homeless, refugees and orphans- to be: … representing the people that really belong to the streets, and kids who have no chance in life. I am an orphan myself and I am quite obsessed by splitting of personality and sensation of emptiness: I am supposed to have a borderline personality, and cutting stencil then painting is like a personal therapy about my own fears, my own ghosts. (Street Art London) There are many orphans, homeless people, and refugees in larger cities, where most graffiti is found. Many of these citizens can relate to either knowing these “broken people” or maybe they are one too. “Broken people” create controversy in larger cities since they are also more prominent there. The public disagrees on how to lower the amount of them and in the end usually nothing significantly gets done to fix the problem. Being an orphan himself, C215 decides to stencil intricate portraits of “broken people” to remind his audience how sad and fearful the broken life can be instead of taking the typical route and arguing with others about the subject. C215’s graffiti designs are a reflection of himself but they also relate to a broader audience than just him, which means that C215 applies to the rules of making a statement and having the statement speak to a larger audience. Graffiti cannot be considered art when the objective is to simply ruin property, which is what most people believe the point of graffiti to be. Most graffiti artists want to make a statement and choose to do so through spray-painting to ensure their work is seen by everyone. This is where the great debate on graffiti comes into play. Most people believe that graffiti is vandalism Sandles 5 because the artists are spray-painting on property that does not belong to them, and this can be agreed upon if the artist does not follow the other rules stated above, however, the public should embrace the graffiti as beautiful and original artwork as long as all the rules are met. For example, graffiti on a wall of a building that only has words or lines that do not even make up a true statement or picture cannot be considered art. On the other hand, graffiti artists like the ones mentioned in the above paragraphs, Banksy, Taki 183, C215 do create graffiti that is considered art because their purpose is not to deface property. They take advantage of certain locations to express their ideas, but not all graffiti artists have to be well-known in order to create graffiti that is considered art. Examine the differences here: vs. Neither of these pieces of graffiti were by well-known graffiti artists but one can be considered art and the other is just meant to ruin property. The picture on the left does not have any clearly written words and cannot even be identified to make up a picture. There is not a statement of any kind since the lines do not make words or a picture of any sort. No audience can be identified since there is no statement to be made towards anyone. Lastly, the only emotional response to be invoked is tears or anger from the property owner when they discover this destruction of property and lack of artistic abilities on the side of the building. On the other hand, the picture on the right can be considered graffiti art. The lines on this property make up a definite picture Sandles 6 consisting of a crazed looking squirrel holding a can of spray-paint with more cans lying about around him. The squirrel also has a speech bubble above him making the statement, “Graffiti is bad!!!”, even though from an analytical standpoint the squirrel is most likely a satire on antigraffiti believers since the he is meant to be shown as the culprit who spray-painted the scene to begin with. The picture is not only following the rule of making a statement but is also following the “invoke an emotional response” rule as well. Since the target audience is graffiti artists and people who take sides in the debate (another rule followed) this squirrel and his anti-graffiti speech bubble will stir up a response from anyone in the target group who sees this piece of art. In other words, the left photo is not considered art because it does not follow all of the rules and is purposefully placed on the building to ruin the property while the right photo is a piece of art because it follows all of the rules considerately. Graffiti is considered art when all of the following rules are obeyed: an emotional response must arise, it makes a statement either by words or pictures, the audience is of broad range, and when the objective is not to ruin property. Many high quality graffiti artists obey all of these rules and create phenomenal art that can be sold for high prices, like in the MOCA graffiti event. Even though most artists follow these basic rules and even though major companies are beginning to support the act of graffiti, many people spray-paint solely to ruin property and this is giving the name of graffiti a dreadful reputation. Famous graffiti artists such as Banksy, Taki 183, and C215 have worked hard to create art that is well known to the public. To say the very least about these wonderful graffiti artists, Banksy invokes emotional responses around the world, Taki 183 makes discrete statements by just by using his name, and C215 relates a broad audience while firmly expressing his own feelings . To them they use the world as their palette and do not focus on selling their art for money and wealth, instead they focus on Sandles 7 selling their ideas by placing them in the most visible spaces for the public, right in front of everyone’s eyes on the streets that are walked on every night and day. Sandles 8 Works Cited Beato, Greg. "Spray Paint the Walls: Graffiti, Art, and Advertising." Reason Aug. 2011: 68. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. Bull, Martin. Banksy, Locations & Tours. Oakland, CA: PM, 2011. Print. "Street Art London." Street Art London – Fresh London Street Art, Graffiti & Culture. Geo Street Art, 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2012