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In 2002 in Temuco, a city in the south of Chile, I was working with Project Trust Scotland in a day centre for teenagers with drug misuse and family problems when I was first introduced to graffiti and it is from this setting that my interest stems. In my final month there, a sixteen year old called Marcelo with a multitude of problems took a blank piece of paper and, in less than an hour and without taking his pencil from the page, drew a 'recuerdo' i.e. a 'memory' for me to take home from my year in Chile (Figure 1.1). I was enthusiastic that he had shared what I believed was a great ability and we set about raising funds for spray paint to make a mural across the centre's outside wall. Everyone became involved and after three days we had completed the project (Figure 1.2). Seven days later, following increasing pressure from passers by, we had been forced to raise more funds, this time for white paint and brushes to remove it. It was deemed 'fea' (ugly) and a 'mala influenza' (bad influence) in the community. This exposed an unsettling reminder that what is acceptable to some is not to others, and that stigma and restraints are suffered by those who transcend this.
In the 1970's, New York gained global recognition as having depreciated economically and socially into crisis (Castleman 1982). While the city neared bankruptcy and the jails reached capacity, someone in Manhattan wrote on a wall. TAKI 183. Although there were undoubtedly many others, TAKI 183 is largely regarded as the first tag which multiplied rapidly throughout New York's public places (Castleman 1982). The intrigue grew of the mystery writer and by the mid-1970s, writers became increasingly competitive: Tags became more complicated, growing in size and complexity, gradually become 'pieces'. Tags were recognised based on stylised techniques, the multiplicity of tags and if the tag was in a difficult to access place, the reputation of that 'writer' would increase. Groups of graffiti writers emerged and began claiming segments of the city as their own, creating moral panic among authorities and the public (Prial 1972; Johnson 1972; Perlmutter 1972; Schumach 1973).
Graffiti is, in its simplest form, an arrangement of institutionally illicit marks in a place where there has been an attempt to establish a coherent order. Every city throughout the world now acquires such marks and every individual is susceptible to their consumption. Cresswell (1996) instigated the argument of graffiti as transgression of normative public space; that these marks were symbolic of "garbage, pollution, obscenity, an epidemic, a disease, a blight, a form of violence, dangerous, and a product of the mad, the ghetto, and the barbarian" (1996; 37). Graffiti is thus ascribed meaning not solely on what it depicts visually, but what it represents symbolically. Creating graffiti images provided Marcelo with a means of escape and, in receiving many positive reactions by his peers, was representative to him of hope and progress; something to be proud of. Were his abilities, and subsequently his pride, condemned to be suppressed because in creating them he symbolically deviated from social rules?
Graffiti is an appropriation of a public space. In appropriating public places, graffiti writers, whether intentionally or otherwise, create images which are ascribed a dual symbolic meaning: of what is a cultural artefact representative of the 'true essence' of broader culture, a symbol we are willing to promote and support; and of criminal behaviour, representative of chaos, a visible blight which our society is keen to eradicate. Where does graffiti 'belong' when conceptualised in such contradictory ways? How may it be manipulated by place to 'fit' into society? And how are our opinions adaptable to criticism for the way in which they have been constructed for us?
This project is not about 'who loves who' etched on toilet cubicles nor is it concerned with the elaborate street paintings where the artist invites you to contribute coins to a hat. The focus of my attention is the compulsive 'tagging', the evolving 'throw-up's', the notoriously risky 'pieces'. It is a UK specific enquiry about the mystery of the images that appear overnight on our railways and city walls. Who are these people? What are they trying to achieve? It is about the sub-cultural values of striving for fame and pride which exists on the periphery of our core culture. It is a highly calculated and politicised process, one which is inherently attached to and defined by place.
In the succeeding chapter, I contextualise my findings by reviewing previous literature surrounding urban spatial dialectics, sub-cultural theory and the problems that previous authors have confronted. The second chapter is an explanation of the methodologies I employed in research and why I thought them appropriate. Throughout the study, public opinion is a central theme as it is this which conditions the societal norm graffiti transcends and/or enhances and it is the public opinion which is often misinformed.
The concept of graffiti as a culture will be explained in the fourth chapter, arguing how graffiti may be promoted as a positive image representative of larger British culture. Furthermore this positive cultural image is conditioned and ordered thus extracting graffiti's chaotic nature to make it more choreographed and 'in place'.
Chapter five is an opportunity to explore the more sinister side of graffiti, which signifies disorder and the eradication of which creates a notion of putting things in their rightful politicised 'place'. The 'war' rhetoric is explained in propagating the power over place sought by both authorities and writers. It is then argued that the graffiti culture is diverse and so does accommodate for opportunistic delinquency.
I conclusively challenge my own preconceptions and offer a suggestion as to how we may better inform public opinion about the realities of graffiti. I discuss the shape graffiti culture may assume in an increasingly globalised sphere, in which the internet and corporate appropriation of the graffiti image make it surpass all previous boundaries it is persuaded to conform to.
Contents | Chapter 2 >>