Graffiti As Art
Ancient graffiti (in red) is covered by tourists' markings inside Rome's Colosseum.
The section will be trying to justify that graffiti is an art and an essential mode of expression. Ever since the time for the early man people have been known to write and scribble on the walls to pass some kind of information or as an expression. The ancient Romans are known to write and scratch on the walls of major cities they conquered. Graffiti has been changing as time passes by and it has evolved to new generation graffiti that mean a whole lot of things to today’s people. Modern graffiti have had a chance to convey certain messages to humans (Young 2010).
Charles Chaz Bojorquez graffiti artist.
To start with, it is imperative to note that various people in the world view graffiti as art. Many graffiti artists view it as just art and do not see anything wrong with doing it as a form of art. They take up graffiti to express the kind of artistic ideas they have on their minds. In this generation, there are many artists and it must be understood that not all of them have been discovered. Others are still struggling as underdogs and they use graffiti as a kind of advertisement or to reach their targets of being in the limelight. Charles “Chaz” Bojorquez was the one who brought about graffiti into the limelight through the Chicanao art. The entrance and recognition of the works of Bojorquez galvanised and made graffiti a recognised piece of art (Scott-Warren 2010).
Although graffiti is scratched on public walls for a majority of the public to see, sometimes it could be illegal. Other graffiti artists seek public permission. They take upon them as a responsibility to go forward and ask for permission to display their artistic work in the form of graffiti on public walls. Through this kind of graffiti, an individual’s work is able to be seen by people and can turn out to be an advantage to the artist. It takes long for someone in the arts arena to prove their worth in the society and thus graffiti can come as a way of showing their worth in the society and taggers always do it. Taggers are one kind of people who do graffiti and the other kind of people are street gangs (Dovey et al. 2012).
Tagger
Taggers do artistic work and sometime they take the initiative of including authority in their work. As part of community beautification, graffiti has been widely used to conquer this purpose. Through their artistic work, a community’s wall or building may be conveyed with relevant messages that are positive to the society. Examples include messages that are against drug abuse and alcoholism that are scratched and sprayed on social walls and public walls. Taggers play a significant role in the life of teenagers they convey messages that are against drug and substance abuse. The ways that graffiti are drawn, they are meant to be attractive and by so doing, they are appeasing to the human eye (Nash 2010).
In seminars and public meetings artist to pass information to the youths uses graffiti’s. It is imperative to note that the youths are intrigued with artistic ideas and motions and are more probably to be associated with these kinds of messages if portrayed in graffiti. It is common for some taggers to be hired by business owners to do their graffiti on their buildings and walls. Business names or the owner’s business visions and missions are portrayed in the form of graffiti. By doing this, the taggers are able to gain a living out of graffiti and term it as some sort of revenue provider (Austin 2010).
It is imperative to note that the art of graffiti is hectic to learn and adopt making it time consuming. Because it takes time perfecting it then it is obvious that a lot of free time that is used by the youth to initiate in crime or substance abuse. It keeps the youth very occupied to the extent of them not having time for crime and drugs. Graffiti has a unique way of connecting with teenagers and they are most likely to do what the graffiti says. If the graffiti has positive or negative messages they are prone to follow on the graffiti’s (Gartus et al. 2015).
A piece of graffiti featured in The Writing on the Wall, photographed by Roger Perry in Chalk Farm, north London around 1974
Graffiti has been used in times of sorrow to uplift members of the society and make them take heart. An example of this kind of graffiti is the one that was drawn because of the Boston Marathon bombings. Various artists took to the street and tagged the city walls with graffiti that gave hope and strength to the people of Boston. It is the graffiti with the words “Boston Strong” that is written in a form of a graffiti that brings people together in this wanting time of disaster. The graffiti brings out hegemonic feeling that promotes national pride and patriotism (Forster et al. 2012).
The words “Boston Strong” are spelled out in bold lettering across the wall of a building on Tremont St in Boston
"Pray For Boston" on a bridge in Boston.
Graffiti by the public near Boylston Street in Boston
Graffiti have been used to differentiate different gang neighbourhoods. Although the society view gangs as violent and illegal, one can be able to identify the ideologies of a gang via the kind of graffiti that they draw on the walls of their territory. Graffiti convey messages on them and if one is keen in studying the kind of graffiti that has been drawn on a certain gang, neighbourhood they can be able to learn about the gangs temperaments. Authorities have taken the initiative to learn about the many ways that different gangs portray their messages. It is critical to note that through the use graffiti authorities have been able to synthesize the different kind of gangs and their motives in the society. Gangs use graffiti to pass various messages including peaceful messages (Dickinson 2008).
Finally, graffiti represents the evolving culture of the modern society. Graffiti is used to display the kind of social changes that are going on in the society. It is a means that is used to explain the social changes that are happening around the human race. It is also a means of entertainment to the society whereby the taggers do the honours of taking their time and creating a masterpiece that is free for everybody to see. Graffiti is used to directly reflect the ways of the society and pass over cultural values (Waldner & Dobratz 2013).