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Montes, Dulce
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Article 10
April 21, 2016
Graffiti on the Great Planes
In the article Graffiti on the Great Plains: A Social Reaction to the Red River Valley
Flood of 1997 written by Carol A. Hagen, Morten G. Ender, Kathleen A. Tiemann, and Clifford
O. Hagan, Jr, the authors analyze the resemblance between graffiti and natural disasters.
Although one may think graffiti and natural disasters have nothing in common, research was
found that very often these two come hand in hand. For example, when the Red River Valley
Flood of 1997 occurred in the two twin cities which happen to be Grand Forks, North Dakota
and Grand Forks, Minnesota, a private form of graffiti was emerged. This region was not the
only place that showed evidence of graffiti and natural disasters having a correlation, when the
Hurricane Andrew in South Florida occurred , graffiti expressed the residents experience. I am
personally against graffiti yet the beauty of the graffiti explained in the article denotes that
residents of these regions used graffiti to express the frustration of looking at their surrounding
and thinking of how to recover from the disasters. Graffiti was used as a form of communication,
trying to communicate their feelings towards the natural disasters. Graffiti served communities
as a social, political, and maybe a psychological voice to help cope with the flood.
As denoted in the article, graffiti is a form of expression and a stress reliever, yet graffiti
has been defined to be a criminal act in which the “artist” vandalizing private or public property
which is visible to the public. The fight on whether graffiti is art or vandalism is an ongoing
argument. The article describes two types of graffiti, public and private, what do these two types
mean? Public graffiti is denoted by being associated with urban areas labeled as the work of
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lower socioeconomic statues and the inner city youth. Private graffiti is described as bathroom
graffiti, which reflect the attitudes of the community and the cultural and gender differences.
Graffiti was the way residents coped with natural disasters.
In 1996 and 1997 the upper mid western side of the United States and the Manitoba,
Canada experienced hash blizzards, to be exact they experienced 8 harsh blizzards that caused
power outs nearly statewide. North Dakota and Minnesota were expecting a nice spring yet the
process of thawing became an unwanted problem which turned out to be the worst and most
dangerous flood in history. The river flood leaves rose and residents were evacuated, this has
been one of the largest evacuations of U.S cities. After the flood, the residents were allowed to
return to their homes, yet residents were having problems meeting survival needs. There were
two stages the “getting by” and the “digging out” phases. The “getting by” phase consist of
residents focusing on basic survival needs. The “digging out” phase consists of residents being
forced to dig out basements and property that was affected by the flood. In the digging out phase,
graffiti was first being acknowledged. The graffiti appeared on major house hold appliances in
which city officials would respond to rumors of minimizing possible theft and resale of foods.
Erickson was researching the reactions of people during a small period after a disaster.
The study wanted to understand the phenomenon in the Red River Valley to the flood and to link
it to our social situation. Qualitative research said “messy tests” where the situation was
uncertain, difficult, and emotionally intense. The fieldwork reflected that they should convert
familiar situations, timely events into the objects of study. In the study they noticed that possible
dangers with opportunistic research in which conflict between roles of members and researchers
may become schizophrenic. Once the issue of being affected personally by the disaster victims,
one is able to move easily into the role of the researcher. The visual sample consisted of the of
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290 selections of graffiti photographs since the graffiti was being cleared, the graffiti was mostly
done with spray paint yet some were also found to be made with mud. When collecting the
photographs the sociologist traveled around these regions by foot, bike, and car to find these
graffiti works. They had an idea of where these would be and so they went. Although the graffiti
was public it was considered to be private, these graffiti works were placed in 5 useful catagories
that helped with the analyze of these works. The 5 catagories consist of humor, social, political
commentary, frustration, drawings and others.
As the results of these graffiti’s the dominant theme that was found was humor. There
was Jocular Humor with refers to the graffiti being characterized as simple, comical, and light
hearted messages towards the effect of the flood. For example “LOOK MOM I CLEANED MY
ROOM” was painted on a refrigerator in the berm. Then there was sarcasm, which was the
second largest category in this category. Sarcasm consisted of Cynical humor and Matter- of –
fact statements. These were some paintings that said “Are we having fun yet? Keep it up!” and
“Th Th That’s all folks”. Then there was Satirical Humor, this humor relies on irony to
demonstrate humans foibles. Then there was Miscellaneous humor, which was depicted as
despite. Example of one of the painting said “ We said a Bud not a flood”.
The majority of this graffiti depicted social and political commentary in correlation to
ones flood experience. There were a handful of politically oriented messages directed to the
Mayor and the city council, the federal emergency management agency, national weather service
and the U.S congress. Not only were these high authority groups were somewhat blamed for the
individuals whom predicted this flood where also targeted. Frustration was one of the most
common emotions these residents were dealing with. The question was who to direct the
frustration, how to deal with it. individuals used graffiti as a mechanism to cope with their
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frustration. There were drawings that also helped with coping, some drawing consisted of
symbols and sketches that included peace signs among others. There were other forms of graffiti
as well such as City Sanctioned Graffiti, this type of graffiti was allowed by City authorities.
Then there was billboard graffiti which was more of a way to minimize theft.
In conclusion, the 1997 Red River Valley Flood catastroffiti was a way of depicting
cultural expression. Although this community experience such a horrible experience, they stuck
together and learned how to cope with this disaster by expressing their emotions and frustrations
through graffiti. One very often is not prepared for these types of disasters, nor how to cope with
them yet these citizens have shown that working together and expressing their emotions through
graffiti or some other method can help one cope with these disasters.
Discussion questions:
1. do you guys think that in todays day if a natural disaster would occur, graffiti would be a
way of coping with the disaster?
2. Do you guys think that today’s graffiti is similar to the graffiti that was performed in
1997?
3. Do you guys think that todays graffiti is depicting ones emotions or is it just to vandalize?