Graffiti art is art that’s going to be a part of New York City’s history forever. Among many things, NYC will always be known for graffiti because it will be painted and repainted trains, walls, bridges, etc. The tags are invented and re-invented, relevant to the city’s culture, and they fully developed with style and color. In a city where the kids own nothing, creating symbols allows them embellish their personal lives, and when collectively done it brings life back to areas that were and are broken down and uncared for with dull colors and an undertone of sadness and poverty. There are no real visual aesthetics in these parts, allowing graffiti to make the area vibrant and lively.
Hip-hop culture bombs the city by painting their name and style on as many surfaces as they can. By doing so, they are able to send a message across the city to the many other city dwellers. They create something to own while also getting recognized by others. Otherwise no one assumes power in the demographic because most are jobless, uneducated, and uncared for. They feel have no other power, no other talent that can give them any control or recognition until they discover self-expressionistic power of graffiti, a language of freedom.
When the graffiti of NYC’s hip-hop culture is contrasted to the modern day Banksy, two major things change: the first is that Banksy is economically stable; the second is that much of Banksy’s graffiti carry a heavier political message than a message of personal power, ownership and existence which takes more priority in hip-hop culture. Banksy chooses to use corporate spaces to strengthen his message and get his point across to the people of higher authority, the source of the issues, namely in Israeli. Tagging is a means for exercising power because it can have a strong influence on those who see it, though if it’s negative or positive influence is debatable. While graffiti is a form of ownership, where it applied to trains, buildings, sidewalks, billboards, buses are owned by the government, not the kids who put the graffiti there. To this regard, graffiti artists extend the meaning of owning because graffiti claims a part of ownership of the surface that was not the artist’s to begin with.
The imaging of hip-hop culture defies societal expectations because society does not expect its’ properties to be defaced by a usually low class citizen who uses graffiti and tagging thereby having a little ownership in their lives. Graffiti and tagging do not defy stereotypes of social scales because they are stereotypes of hip-hop culture, namely people f color. Only when white kids use graffiti might it be considered to defy stereotypes, however, white kids are attracted to graffiti for the same reasons black or Puerto Rican are: they share certain aspects of life that urges them to find something to let their voice be heard, take ownership of that voice, and establish an identity.
In break dancing, the hip-hop culture uses their body as a medium to for self expression. They feel something inside of them and they just let it out, usually for crowds to see and others to rebuttal. It gives them something to do, something that is free, competitive, and enjoyable. It gives them power, it liberates them, getting their adrenaline pumping. Because many break dancers are also a part of low-culture, it is another activity that can bring a little life to the environment.
People get caught up in routines that they don’t really notice their surroundings. They walk with music in their ears or looking down at their feet, avoiding the uncomfortable gaze and zoning out into their own world. If graffiti brings people back into consciousness in their surroundings, then people should appreciate it. The graffiti brings a voice and a life to the usually low-class communities, giving them something visually aesthetic to look at besides drab buildings, dirty streets, and uncared for lives. The graffiti speaks for the whole community who are just like the artists who put it there. Though it only the hands of a few put the graffiti up, it gives a collective voice to everyone who lives there because they are living that same lifestyle.
In my eyes, quality is more important than quantity. Who wants to see a bunch of shitty tags put on graffiti that obviously did not take a lot of time and effort? A graffiti artist would get more recognition and power for single work that is visually aesthetic over the tags that ruin its aesthetics. More people would see quicky done tags in more locations, true, but its not as respectable as one done on a grand scale or with great attention to detail. The video only really talked to one person who spent his time bombing other works around the city. Maybe this is done because some feel a greater inequality than other graffiti artists, maybe they are jealous, maybe they are just bored. It’s true that more people would see tags if one went for quantity of quality, but people who see it may not give it much appreciation if its poorly done, ruining another work. With as many different private spaces that are available for graffiti and tagging, though some areas will be more populated than others, it doesn’t make much sense that one does not they could find a blank space for them to work on and create something visually appealing that others can enjoy as well. Maybe they bomb other graffiti because they are jealous/impatient that they cannot do the same thing. While graffiti is more cultural, bombing seems to be more of an ego booster, that they can claim more than graffiti.
Graffiti loses intensity as it is taken off the train and displayed in a gallery because of the nature of applying it to private property. Because it is an illegal activity, for one to be able to create a complex work and get away with it, it is impressive and speaks louder as far as their courage, stealth, and skill is concerned. When working on a canvas, it is a much calmer situation for the graffiti artist, giving them plenty of time to develop the quality and to fix or reconsider different parts of the work. This is not to denounce their talent, as either way it is respectable, but because of the restrictive nature of applying graffiti to trains, buildings, walls, billboards, and other properties that is managed by those who have power, it has that much more voice and intensity than putting graffiti on a personally owned canvas and hanging it in a gallery. It has a stronger expression on a billboard than a canvas because of what it takes to put it there.
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