'Fall into Art': November 1, 2019
5 years ago
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Graffiti
Graffiti: art or vandalizm? Just watched a short doc about SF graffiti called Piece by Piece (2oo4). Yes, there is some wonderful imagery. There is also a lot of unsightly (in my opinion) tagging. Much of graffiti is about getting your name around town. Many times, that is all there is, just your name. That's totally ego. But where and how can we draw the line. If graffiti is a form of expressive freedom, then it must apply to all. However, since it usually also involves private and public property, then it also invades into the lives of others. Conventional art, also a form of creative expression, is controlled by the market to distinguish "good" art from "bad". Graffiti art is not controlled by the market, so good vs bad cannot be distinquished. California passed Prop. 21, making graffiti, tagging and marking a felony if the damages exceed $400. This has been somewhat effective in curtailing graffiti, but also adds to the adventure. Putting up posters on wlls with wheat paste appears to be legal. If graffiti artists painted on paper, then glued it up, would it be legal then? I'm really not sure where I stand on the issue. I see both sides, and sympathize with both sides. I've painted on a lot of walls, but always with permission and usually for profit. Now back to the playoffs.
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2 comments:
I like your idea of tagging on paper and using wheat paste to stick it up. I don't care how beautiful it is, I don't want it on my house or garage unless I see it first and decide, yes, that's cool...go ahead. Reno has a Youth in Arts program that hires kids, under an adult artist's supervision to design and paint murals around the commnunity. The water tower up where I live is really spectacular...it has an angry looking Uncle Sam and a blind Justice. Hmmmm. The one under the bridge off of Keystone down by Idlewild park where I walk my dogs is also beautiful...lots of merging forms and piano keys. Both have been up for about three or four years now. At first I thought some tagger would come along and destroy it, but they remain untouched. Usually I have at least one graffitti artist in every art class...or at least a wwant to be. This year a girl madee a start out of rolled newspapers that was over four feet tall and she covered it with bricks and tagging. It looked pretty cool, but I still don't want it on my house. Once in a while I see cars covered in tagging...and I think it looks kind of cool...and truthfully, I kind of like looking at the tagging that covers most railroad cars.
It is a tough call, but really, in my opinion it should be illegal and strictly enforced as it does damage ones property. The truly gifted tag artists have chosen to turn their craft into a career and make a ton of cash in doing so. Their works are truly art, and I understand they had to get a name somewhere, but there are other ways to do it besides illegally defacing someones property. I would honestly love to see a greater proliferation of the great graffiti artists work, but not at the expense of illegally defacing anyones property.
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