graffiti

 

 

by Nathan (Nov 19, 2005)

The word GRAFFITI simply means--words or drawings scratched or scribbled on a wall. The word comes from the Greek term "graphein" (to write) and the word "grafitti" itself is plural of the Italian word "graffito."

Art in the form of graffiti (graffiti by style and considered so only if it appears on public or private property without permission) originated in the late 1960s, but graffiti in term of public and unsolicited markings have been around for ever. Some say they represent man's desire and need for communication, and the history of this type of communication dates back to one of the first communicative acts, drawing. 

It was in the late 1960s when "Julio 204" began writing his "tag" all around the city of New York. Soon following Julio came a Greek youth from Manhattan named Demitrius who tagged his own "Taki183" all over the city as well. Taki also focused on writing on the subway in New York. Even though what Julio 204 and Taki 183 did in New York eventually developed into what was called by some "New York Style" graffiti, these New York writers only popularized it. It is said that tagging first started in Philadelphia with the emergence of the legendary "Cornbread" and "Top Cat." Soon after the Philly development and the start of New York Graffiti, Top Cat's style started showing up in NYC and was called "Broadway Style" because of the long skinny lettering. 

In 1971, the New York Times found and interviewed Taki 183 to try and explain this new phenomenon. Within a year of the article, "Taki 183 Spawns Pen Pals," hundreds of new writers emerged and took New York City by storm.

As tagging and graffiti started blowing up in the early 70s, people were caught off guard. 

Now there are some interesting points to be made about kids defacing property. You see, it was much more complex than just "defacing," there are many ways writers "deface" things.


One type is the individual marks, slogans, slurs or political statements usually found on bathroom walls and stalls or on other exterior surfaces. Some refer to this as "latrinalia" or some just call it junk; this is the stuff that gives writers a bad name. There is also the individual "tag" which is a fancy way of writing one's name or nickname (nicknames often include the street number that a writer lived at, such as Taki 183, on 183rd Street in Washington Heights). 

A tag is usually decorated with a variety of stylish marks. Although they may have style, they still lack an aspect of quality art work. Anyone can come up with and practice and put up a tag. But it is not really meant for artistic purposes. It basically indicates a writer's presence. The tag is one way that graffiti artists are similar to gang members, although gang graffiti don't usually evolve into anything very skilful. Their purpose is to also, like for writers, indicate a presence (a gang presence) and also to mark around specific gang turf. 

Although lots of writers would not want to be compared to gangsters, the two groups do have several things in common: "both seek recognition from their peers, use aliases, take part in illegal activities, see themselves as noble outlaws and are young and most often poor."

Even though graffiti have grown in style and artistic quality, even though graffiti crews can now be found everywhere from Louisville, Kentucky to mainland China, most people would still say that "New York City conceived graffiti and it will always be the capital and cultural centre of graffiti."

Also, when graffiti first started coming up, they were done predominantly by Puerto Rican and African American youths from poor inner-city neighbourhoods. Now, graffiti have attracted people, male and female, of all races, religions and nationalities from the broadest types of backgrounds from all socio-economic classes, and you can regularly find writers ranging in age from 8 to their 30s.

One writer, Shmoo, commented: "Graffiti is one of the few movements that I have been involved in that includes people from all backgrounds with one goal in mind...`getting up.'" Getting up means "To hit up anything, anywhere, with any form of graffiti from a tag all the way to a wild style burner."


photos from:
http://undergroundhip-hop.net/graffiti/
http://www.photojunkie.ca/
http://www.bigfoto.com/sites/galery/graffitti/


If you wish to react to this article, write to the editor.


Jan 17, 2006

I think that grafiti can be very beautiful, but I don't like people who do it on cars. Now graphiti is like an art. There are exhibitions and people are specialists. Many shops opened where we can buy tools to do it or clothes to wear while we do it.

Thomas (Blois, YGTP)


March 5, 2006

Dear Nathan,
In my opinion grafittis could be nice. But they are horrible if they are on house walls or other places where they shouldn't be. Spraying grafitti could be fun. In adittion some people make very beautyful grafittis, they can do it very well. So they can be nice and bad.

Jacqueline (Menden, Germany)


April 29, 2006

This article was very interesting to read. I think it's very well written and has a good amount of information, specially on the origins of graffiti and how it has progressed. The only thing that I disagree with is the comparison between graffiti artists and gang members. Even though both write tags to indicate their presence, gang members are often violent and engage in other illegal activities. Besides, graffiti artists nowadays aren't mostly young and poor, you said it yourself. "Now graffiti has attracted people, male and female, of all races, religions and nationalities from the broadest types of backgrounds from all socio-economic classes and you can regularly find writers ranging in age from 8 to their 30s".
Graffiti here in Argentina is quite different from the ones in New York City. It rarely has any artistic value and it's more of a prank than a way to indicate one's presence. The most common type of graffiti here 
are short phrases with a signature, normally about the artists life, for example "I love you, *****. Tomi", and political statements. All in all, graffiti here is just "latrinalia" spread everywhere.

John (Buenos Aires)