November 28th, 2007
Skipping bail
I am referring to this article in the Telegraph.
Though, being a fan of nominative determinism, I think the police may have had a point there… Badlands, hoho.
Whilst this is obviously silly, I understand that people have a real problem against graffiti – it’s often termed as vandalism but I believe it to be pretty much the opposite.
Vandalism is when you destroy something, not when you create.
From the fantastic illustrations to the simple written word, I love graffiti in all of its forms – it’s like someone has taken the world and made a book out of it.
The public should be free to graffitize public property. After all, they kind of own it.
I agree. Though I think that it would be fun to put prompts on sections of freeway wall when it’s built.
‘Death’
‘Blue’
‘Tasty’
‘Existential Quandary’
&c.
What a great idea!
You’ve got to stop those kids now, before they get old enough to start wearing hoodies. Then you’ll really be in for it.
The news story seems like a lot of fuss about nothing. Personally I wouldn’t be as concerned about the children marking on the road as I would about them playing on it. Don’t you have driveways in England?
Graffiti can be either good or bad depending on aesthetics. The Pink Lady was good. A park bench marked up with a sharpie is bad. Still, there are some gems to be found everywhere, as in this exchange spotted on a bathroom wall: One person had written “I #%@!ed your mother!”. Underneath, a second person had written “Go home, Dad, you’re drunk”.
Classic.
The gents in my local pub used to be tatooed with graffiti – my favourite bits being ‘beware limbo dancers’ written at the foot of the cubicle door and, mocking some of the right-on messages ‘fight the cistern’. Alas, they were painted over a couple of years ago… I prefer to see it as being provided with a blank canvass.
However, I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but my all time favourite piece of work is the phrase ‘Bill Lamb is Daft’ – it was carved into a paving slab near where I used to live. I don’t know who Bill is, or why someone would feel compelled to carve such a mild insult into solid stone, but somehow it works for me.
As for plaing in the street, when I was a child I distinctly remember my Dad telling me to ‘go and play in the road’ on several occasions. It’s just how we do things over here I guess.
Hmm, “go play in the traffic” is the only reference to playing in the road that i’ve ever heard.
but you can’t play curbsies anywhere OTHER than the road. so neyah to the authorities.
I live on a street where the cars race by at sixty mph. Not really conducive to playing in the road.
However, if you walk about a mile you can get to the Disneyland Hotel, which has awesome grounds. And koi ponds. And waterfalls to run about in. And windy hidden bits with gazebos that are great for playing make believe.
Wow. I’m so jealous. all we have for make-believing in is the school woods that they just fenced off…:(
Thing is, you can make-believe anywhere–that’s the beauty of make-believe.
Ah, true, true. my mind wanders off by itself no matter where it is. but magical surroundings make for even better make believe, dontcha think?
Yes, definitely. Magical company even more so, however.
Yay, magical company! That’s what this place is to me: a whole lot of magical company.
Yay, Melanthios and Roo uniting in the love of magical company!
Magical company can be found is the weirdest places…but it depends if you want an actual witch or wizard, or just amazing friends. I know both
what’s that saying.. a yes. “A true friend can crack a joke that brightens up your day even if they can’t find a way of brightening their own”
kinda sweet, really.
Yeah, graffiti can be good or bad. Good if its creative and such, but sometimes people just come out with a spray can and start coving things with random rants just because they can. Which I find rather annoying.
Honestly, what I’m more concerned about is what kind of person calls the police because some poor kid is playing hopscotch on the road. It’s not like chalk is really going to affect your driving ability.
The kids should find out who called the cops and throw a brick through their window. That’ll teach ‘em.
You know, I could go off on a rant about how all art is being censored now, but I don’t have the level of skill to make it sound intentionally funny.
I play hopscotch on stonework ground. It’s mandatory.
All art is being c******d now.
XD I read that and put ‘cuckolded’ there, not ‘censored’.
The beauty of graffiti is it’s anti-establishment
statement. People who make graffiti should be
punished, otherwise breaking the law will lose it’s appeal.
I’ve gotten bored with rebelling for the sake of it; the way I see it, there are more productive things to spend my energy on.
I love street art, which is not vandalism.
Living in Perth, in the CBD, I got to see some great pieces, but also I always saw those PoS that just tag every thing with nikko’s and that ruins it for everyone.
My favourite place for graffiti is the toilets at TAFE. The walls are covered in marker, pen, white out, scratch marks, etc.
The comments are so insightful, from messages from the KKK, white power, black power, gay rights, christian groups, pro/anti drug, etc.
Interesting array of social commentary, tho I wonder what audience they expect to influenence using this medium.
http://chickencrap.com/c.php?c=990
It’s pictures of what they think is some great graffiti, some of it I absolutely love, but others… not so much…
If you click at the top of the page on the “pictures” link
There should be a section for “Special collections” Evolution graffiti should be on the top of the list
Now that one’s pretty awesome, but I kinda doubt it’s really graffiti… It’s probably near a science center or something.
Okay, that was really really cool. EVOLUTION!
toilets are great for graffiti.
Think this case was a bit OTT, but I can see where they’re coming from. Anti-social behaviour (which I wouldn’t count this as) can make one’s life a misery.
Re: “I love graffiti in all of its forms” – oh yeah – it’s just brilliant. Especially when you have just spent your hard earned cash getting your wall painted and then some little shit comes around and writes “ZAK” on it. That’s surely art, isn’t it?
Ahh, yeah, I like to draw up a dividing line between graffiti in a public place and the demarkation of personal property. You’re right, it’s no fun having your property tagged…
… however, it is sort of art; it’s a graphic representation used to convey a message, however unsubtle, and that still counts… but not for much.
So, what heppened to you? Did some kid named Zak spray your wall?
I spent a summer in Washington DC a couple years ago, and it just happened to be the same summer than this kid, using the alias Borf, was spray painting the town. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borf] Dude was an amazing artist, with a personal/political message that drove his art. And the neatest thing about it was, DC loved him. Thy were just waiting to see what he did next. This was one of my favourites (wish I could find a better picture):
http://www.readexpress.com/read_freeride/photos/2007-05-21-borf3.jpg
The cops finally caught him. He spent some time in jail, and has just recently gotten out. He’s not allowed inside DC’s boarders ever again. This is the difference between Public Artists in America and Europe: Banksy gets famous and well loved, Borf gets sent to jail.
And one last graffiti link, just because it’s fun:
http://storiesfromspace.co.uk/data/html/mossgraffiti.html
(I’ve done this, it’s AMAZINGLY cool!)
http://www.woostercollective.com/
They have some pretty call examples of graffiti, if you go back a bit they have the evolution one as well. but they show graffiti in all it’s forms-posters designed just to insult, actual graffiti done with spray paints etc, sides of buildings that have been painted.
Has anyone ever seen the drawings that one guy does on the street that appear 3D? they’re absolutly fantastic, one he did that had an image of a hole in the middle, people wouldn’t walk over because it genuinly appeared like they would fall in.
See, he does it on the street, and it’s not graffiti. it’s art.
Actually, come to it, I think guerilla landscaping is much more awesome than even the most artistic graffiti. There are people in the UK who spirit about in the dead of night, planting things in public planters that have been neglected. That’s art, and once more it’s living art.
Mm, that does sound nice. I wish someone would do that where I live. We don’t have public planters, though. We just have trees. So there’s really no need. But still, I love the idea.
I finally discovered the two main perks of doing an afternoon paper round today.
when the sun’s still up-starlings, on a background of red clouds.
when it gets dark, and when i’ve finished delivering all the papers-lying on the grass and staring up at the stars, just..letting my mind do it’s own thing for a while.
it’s not living art, as such. but to me, it’s beautiful.
6000; When I was working in a very public place, I found the best way to stop a particular garffer was to write their name and details under their “art”.
It seems to unnerve them.
FOR THE WIN, BEN. For. The. Win.
That is so Wilde of you. X3
Actually, hopscotch originated as a gambling game for Roman criminals.
Which has almost nothing to do with this strip, I know.
Anyway, I’m going through the archives, and I think it’s most thought-provoking thing I’ve read or seen in a while, in any medium. I love it.
Unrelated facts… that’s pretty much what The Flowfield Unity is all about… and in this case it’s a really interesting one.
All I can picture is Russell Crow, in a gingham dress, playing hopscotch, though.
…and thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Just came across this, so I thought I’d add it to this dead-thread:
“Graffiti. The symbolic shorthand that doesn’t rely on the wireless networks of the telcos, that can’t be regulated or legislated, that will occur as long as there are revolutionary cells within the confines of the cities, as long as there are free thinkers still not yet absorbed by the state. There will always be a way to symbolize the existence of free will: by scrawling on the walls of bathroom stalls, by tagging subway cars and the billboards, by scraping the paint off phone booths and bus stands, or by plastering telephone poles with handbills.”
Lifted from here:
http://psychobabel.net/mosaic/node.php?nid=80&pid=23
And in context, it doesn’t even relate to this thread. Haha!