Graffiti New York
Sometimes I can’t stop seeing graffiti, and I mean the good kind, not just tags over and over, but something that looked like it took effort and had some vision. Some see graffiti as defacement. I see it as enhancement, if done in the right way.
On my train ride from the city to my homestead in New Jersey, we pass under a bridge outside of Newark. The abutment is alternatively covered in elaborate graffiti and painted over in plain white. A battle of the spray and paint can wills. Why not leave the graffiti? It’s more interesting to look at, especially on a long and boring ride through the swamps of Secaucus.
If you’re like me – and you’re still strapped for a gift – you might like this book, Burning New York, Graffiti NYC. To tell the truth, I haven’t had a chance to look at it since it’s been sold out in every book store I’ve looked in so far. But I attended a panel discussion earlier this month during which the authors and a few of the featured artists talked about graffiti, how they got started, how it’s evolved over the years, and how any street art, even licensed murals, is still seen as criminal.
Criminal? Nah. Free? Definitely, and in more than one way.
[Photo courtesy of me. Mosaic made with fd's flickr toys.]
how appropriate you write this info right when 11 spring street is being opened to the public for three days this weekend! go to 11 spring between 11-5 today(friday) thru sunday and check out the international graffiti history!! http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/arts/design/14graf.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
dalia, that’s so cool! thanks for the info. i’m going to add it to the posting.
I don’t get how graffiti can be seen as an enhancement. I mean I get that it can look cool at times… But, it’s very nature is that it is unwanted defacement of property. If it is done by the builder of the structure, then it is really not graffiti.
Also, while I understand that people think it is appealing to look at, where do you draw the line? Surely, you must agree that if it was not illegal and open-season, there would be graffiti EVERYWHERE! Then the city would look like a run-down dump. So, I think as a society we must be for it or against it, and I am against it because I don’t believe it is the right of people to deface the work of other people.
Finally, many architects, engineers and builders consider their structures to be art, but when a graffiti artist tags these structures, they are, in fact, destroying art.
noah, i do agree that there should be limitations, and the subways look nicer than they did in the past.
however, during the panel i went to, the artists talked about how the police go after even their commissioned work, how because something is done with spraypaint, it’s automatically dinged as criminal.
the panel also talked about how other cities around the world view street art differently, how it’s more regulated and in a way more open. i’m afraid i’m not an expert on the topic so i can’t argue fully. i just know i love walking down the street and being surprised by awesome looking graffiti. the appeal for me isn’t just that it looks cool, but that it was spontaneous, that it wasn’t within the confines of a museum or gallery or even a commissioned work. i like those things too, but graffiti to me is a different kind of art to appreciate.
the limits set probably make me appreciate it more.